Wave patterns observed on the WIND satellite during ionospheric heating
Abstract
A new class of ionospheric heating experiments have been undertaken, in which the high-power heater-wave with frequency greater than the critical plasma frequency of the F-peak is detected on the WIND satellite. The spiky structure of the observed signal is similar to a diffraction pattern. We explain the observed pattern with a simple theoretical model that combines the effect of irregularities in the ionosphere with diffraction analysis in the wave propagation after encountering the F-peak. By using the theory of diffraction for an N-slit diffraction grating with random phases, we have shown that the main features, like the characteristic size of the irregularity, the average separation, the overall scale size (obtained by converting the time scale to the space scale by taking into account the rotation speed of the earth) can be readily explained. We will also present other 2D simulations of the nonlinear thermal filamentation near reflection heights and compare the computed time-dependent changes in the density with multi-frequency Doppler measurements.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000APS..DPPDP1009M