The COSMIC radio occultation mission represents a revolution in atmospheric sounding from space, with precise, accurate, and all-weather global observations useful for weather, climate, and space weather research and operations.
GPS Signal
GPS Satellite
Optical measurements made at the Arecibo Observatory during the 1987 heating campaign showed large temporal and spatial variations in 630.0‐nm airglow enhancements during times of continuous power transmissions of high‐power radio waves. Photometric data displayed fluctuations of 60 R or more in the red‐line (630.0 nm) emission from atomic oxygen. These fluctuations were associated with heater‐induced cavities which drifted and evolved in the modified ionosphere. Data from the Arecibo incoherent scatter radar were used in conjunction with airglow images to provide a physical interpretation of the modification process. Electrons were accelerated by large amplitude Langmuir waves excited by parametric decay instabilities occurring near the wave reflection points inside the density cavities. Inelastic collisions with oxygen atoms produced excited states which yielded enhanced 630.0‐nm and 557.7‐nm emissions. A numerical model has been used to relate the enhanced airglow intensities to the energy spectrum of the accelerated electrons. The measured airglow could have been produced by an isotropic source at 340 km altitude that accelerated 0.01% of the ambient electrons into a suprathermal Maxwellian distribution with a temperature of 2.05 eV. Experimental and theoretical studies suggest that airglow clouds were directly coupled to plasma density cavities because (1) these cavities trapped the HF radio beam and (2) electrons accelerated out into regions of reduced plasma concentration were less effectively thermalized and, consequently, were more effective for collisional excitation of neutral species.
The barium releases in the magnetotail during the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) operation were monitored by ground‐based imagers and by instruments on the Ion Release Module. After each release, the data show the formation of a structured diamagnetic cavity. The cavity grows until the dynamic pressure of the expanding ions balances the magnetic pressure on its surface. The magnetic field inside the cavity is zero. The barium ions collect on the surface of the cavity, producing a shell. Plasma irregularities form along magnetic field lines draped over the surface of the cavity. The scale size of the irregularities is nearly equal to the thickness of the shell. The evolution and structuring of the diamagnetic cavity are modeled using magnetohydrodynamics theory.
Abstract. An ordinary mode electromagnetic wave can decay into an ion acoustic wave and a scattered electromagnetic wave by a process called stimulated Brillouin scatter (SBS). The first detection of this process during ionospheric modification with high power radio waves was reported by Norin et al. (2009) using the HAARP transmitter in Alaska. Subsequent experiments have provided additional verification of this process and quantitative interpretation of the scattered wave frequency offsets to yield measurements of the electron temperatures in the heated ionosphere. Using the SBS technique, electron temperatures between 3000 and 4000 K were measured over the HAARP facility. The matching conditions for decay of the high frequency pump wave show that in addition to the production of an ion-acoustic wave, an electrostatic ion cyclotron wave may also be produced by the generalized SBS processes. Based on the matching condition theory, the first profiles of the scattered wave amplitude are produced using the stimulated Brillouin scatter (SBS) matching conditions. These profiles are consistent with maximum ionospheric interactions at the upper-hybrid resonance height and at a region just below the plasma resonance altitude where the pump wave electric fields reach their maximum values.
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