Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Measurements and modeling of cosmic noise absorption changes due to radio heating of the D region ionosphere
AU - Senior, A.
AU - Rietveld, M.T.
AU - Honary, F.
AU - Singer, W.
AU - Kosch, M.J.
N1 - Copyright (2011) American Geophysical Union. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.
PY - 2011/4/14
Y1 - 2011/4/14
N2 - Powerful high‐frequency radio waves can heat the electrons in the D region of the ionosphere. This heating increases the electron‐neutral collision frequency which modifies the absorption of other radio waves propagating through the heated plasma. A high spatial resolution imaging riometer was used to observe changes in cosmic radio noise absorption (CNA) induced by heating from the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) HF facility, and the results were compared to a theoretical model using observed electron densities as an input. The model is found to overestimate the observed effect by a factor close to 2, despite different background electron density profiles and heater powers. However, the model reproduced the spatial morphology of the change in CNA rather well, and the same absorption calculation used in the heating model also reproduced the changes in CNA due to electron precipitation in the absence of heating well. When the assumption of a perfectly conducting ground is replaced with a more realistic model in the calculation of the HF radiated power, the power is reduced to about 75% of its original value, and the model overestimate of the CNA change is reduced to a factor of about 1.3.
AB - Powerful high‐frequency radio waves can heat the electrons in the D region of the ionosphere. This heating increases the electron‐neutral collision frequency which modifies the absorption of other radio waves propagating through the heated plasma. A high spatial resolution imaging riometer was used to observe changes in cosmic radio noise absorption (CNA) induced by heating from the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) HF facility, and the results were compared to a theoretical model using observed electron densities as an input. The model is found to overestimate the observed effect by a factor close to 2, despite different background electron density profiles and heater powers. However, the model reproduced the spatial morphology of the change in CNA rather well, and the same absorption calculation used in the heating model also reproduced the changes in CNA due to electron precipitation in the absence of heating well. When the assumption of a perfectly conducting ground is replaced with a more realistic model in the calculation of the HF radiated power, the power is reduced to about 75% of its original value, and the model overestimate of the CNA change is reduced to a factor of about 1.3.
KW - riometer
KW - eiscat
KW - heating DCS-publications-id
KW - art-1026
KW - DCS-publications-credits
KW - aries
KW - iono-fa
KW - iris
KW - DCS-publications-personnel-id
KW - 51
KW - 5
KW - 7
U2 - 10.1029/2010JA016189
DO - 10.1029/2010JA016189
M3 - Journal article
VL - 116
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research
SN - 0148-0227
IS - A04310
ER -