Open AccessArtificial ducts caused by HF heating of the ionosphere by HAARP
Author(s) -
Vartanyan A.,
Milikh G. M.,
Mishin E.,
Parrot M.,
Galkin I.,
Reinisch B.,
Huba J.,
Joyce G.,
Papadopoulos K.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2012ja017563
Subject(s) - ionosphere , plasma , zenith , electron density , computational physics , geophysics , radio wave , physics , high frequency , geology , atmospheric sciences , optics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
We report on satellite observations of plasma density enhancements (ducts) in the topside ionosphere during four HAARP/BRIOCHE campaigns during 2009–2010. Artificial ducts, caused by high‐power HF radio wave injections from the HAARP transmitter toward the magnetic zenith, are detected by the DEMETER and DMSP satellites on a regular basis when there is a perceptible ionospheric F 2 peak density. Overall, the plasma density enhancements detected between 0930 and 1230 LT varied from 3–13%, while those during ∼1730–2215 LT were typically 15–40%. We also used a modified SAMI2 model to study the artificial ducts' mechanism driven by HF electron heating in the bottomside F 2 region. The heating builds up the plasma pressure, thus pushing plasma along the magnetic field. The simulation results performed for the input parameters similar to the conditions of the heating experiments are in fair agreement with the pertinent observations. The ducts seem to be produced most efficiently for heating frequencies quite close to the critical frequency f o F 2 .