Disturbances of the ionospheric conductivity owing to the generation of magnetic pulsations in the Pc1 frequency range by means of the heating of electrons by a ground-based high-power high-frequency transmitter

Abstract

Experiments on the generation of artificial electromagnetic pulsations constitute an important part of investigations of the magnetosphere-ionosphere system with the use of an active action. The investigation of the generation of magnetic pulsations in the Pc1 frequency range has shown that the response of the ionosphere to heating is detected only in a few experiments. Although the primary perturbed parameter is the electron temperature, the efficiency of the generation of pulsations is determined by the perturbations of the ionospheric conductivity. The magnitude of these hertz perturbations depends complexly on the electron density profile and the parameters of a pump wave. The numerical experiment demonstrates the determining effect of the electron density in the D region on the magnitude of perturbations of the ionospheric conductivity. Under conditions of a low electron density, it is impossible to create a large perturbation of the conductivity in the Pc1 frequency range, although perturbations of the electron temperature can be large in this case. In view of a large number of electrons at altitudes of 70–90 km, which absorb a considerable fraction of the energy of a high-frequency wave, the electron temperature in the E region of the ionosphere cannot be sharply increased, but the amplitude of the variations of the ionospheric conductivity in this case is larger than that for the profiles with a low electron density. In the presence of the developed D region, the efficiency of the modification of the conductivity in the indicated frequency range can be increased by choosing the optimal frequency and polarization of the pump wave. A low efficiency of the experiments on the generation of artificial magnetic pulsations in the Pc1 frequency range is apparently explained by the fact that they were performed in winter in the absence of a well-developed D region of the ionosphere.