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Triggering the HF breakdown of the atmosphere by barium release
Author(s) -
Papadopoulos K.,
Milikh G. M.,
Sprangle P.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/93gl00489
Subject(s) - barium , ionization , materials science , environmental science , computational physics , ionosphere , atmospheric sciences , radio frequency , lightning (connector) , atmosphere (unit) , radiation , mixing ratio , atomic physics , rocket (weapon) , physics , analytical chemistry (journal) , meteorology , chemistry , power (physics) , ion , optics , environmental chemistry , thermodynamics , geophysics , electrical engineering , aerospace engineering , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , engineering
RF ionization rates for mixtures of air with barium are computed using a Fokker‐Planck code. It is shown that there is an optimum mixing ratio of barium to air, significantly lower than unity, which maximizes the ionization rate for a given value of incident RF power density and frequency. Rocket injection of barium at a selected height reduces significantly the RF breakdown threshold for the mixture, and allows atmospheric and ionospheric breakdown at the selected heights using the radiation from the powerful HF radio facilities. The possibility of field experiments using currently available or projected HF heaters is discussed.