We report on the results of studies of the evolution of artificial ionospheric turbulence (AIT) excited by short pulses of high-power short-wave O-mode radio emission in the ionospheric F region. On the basis of the obtained experimental data, it is assumed that the streams of thermal and suprathermal electrons generated in the regions of resonant interaction between a high-power radio wave and the plasma and propagating along the geomagnetic field stimulate the development of plasma perturbations far away from the primary-turbulence regions. Specific features of the measurement procedure are considered, an empirical model of the observed phenomena is developed, and possible problems in the further studies are outlined.

We present the results of experimental studies of the properties of the thermal narrow-continuum component NC th of stimulated electromagnetic emission (SEE) of the ionosphere observed in a narrow region between the pump frequency and the downshifted maximum (DM). Spectral and dynamic characteristics of the NC th component are considered and the dependence of its properties on the frequency and power of the pumping wave as well as on the zenith angle of a high-power radio-wave beam in the geomagnetic-meridian plane is analyzed. It is proved that the NC th generation is determined by the thermal (resonant) parametric instability near the level of the upper-hybrid resonance for a high-power radio wave. New experimental data on the properties of the main DM thermal component in the spectrum of stimulated electromagnetic emission, which we used as the reference component in most measurements, are presented.

We present the results of measuring the characteristics of the stimulated electromagnetic emission (SEE) of the ionosphere with variation in the zenith angle of a pump beam of high-power O-mode radio waves in the geomagnetic-meridian plane. The experiments were performed at the midlatitude heating facility "Sura." It is established that the maximum intensity of the DM and BC components of SEE is observed for southward inclination angles θ ≈ 8 • −−12 • of the antenna beam, for which the most intense generation of artificial small-scale ionospheric irregularities also takes place. Based on the results of measurements near the fourth and fifth harmonics of the electron gyrofrequency, it is found that the first component of the BUM (BUM-1) is generated only when the pump wave reaches the plasma-resonance region. This allows one to assume that, unlike the second component of the BUM (BUM-2), whose generation is determined by development of instability in the upper-hybrid resonance region, the BUM-1 generation mechanism should be related to processes of interaction between a high-power radio wave and the plasma in the plasma-resonance region.

We present the results of studying the properties of artificial F -spread that appears on ionograms during heating of the ionospheric F 2 region by a high-power O-mode radio wave. It is shown that the regions of resonant interaction of a high-power radio wave with plasma, where the pump-wave energy is almost totally absorbed and the plasma is subject to intense heating, affect significantly the development of a self-focusing instability of a high-power radio wave and the generation of middle-scale (with characteristic scales across the magnetic field l ⊥ ≈ 0.4−1.5 km) artifical ionospheric inhomogeneities. It is established that the intensity of such inhomogeneities depends on the sign and magnitude of detuning of the pump-wave frequency with respect to the electron gyroresonance harmonic frequency ∆f = f PW − nf ce and has the minimum value for ∆f ≈ −20 kHz, thus demonstrating the asymmetry of the gyroharmonic properties of their excitation mechanism. Relationship between the observed phenomena and known characteristics of the artificial ionospheric turbulence for f PW ≈ nf ce is analyzed.