Experimental Studies of the Effects Observed During the Nonlinear Interaction of Two High-Power Radio Waves in a Magnetoplasma

Abstract

We present the results of experiments on modification of the ionospheric F region by two high-power (Peff ≈ 20 MW) O-mode electromagnetic waves. The experiments were performed at the “Sura” heating facility of the Radiophysical Research Institute (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) in May 23–27, 1993 at the pump frequencies near the 4th, 5th, or 6th harmonics of the electron gyrofrequency. Ionospheric perturbations were diagnosed by measuring the stationary spectral characteristics of the stimulated electromagnetic emission (SEE) of the ionospheric plasma. We determine the features of variation in the spectral characteristics of particular SEE components during the simultaneous heating of the ionospheric plasma by two radio waves in comparison with the case of a monochromatic pump wave. We observed the effect of enhanced generation of the broad up-shifted maximum (BUM) by the higher-frequency pump wave. This is accompanied by strong suppression of the BUM induced by the lower-frequency pump wave. It is shown that the effects observed during the two-frequency heating of the ionosphere have well pronounced gyroharmonic properties, i.e., depend on both the electron-gyroharmonic number and the frequency detuning of the pump waves from a harmonic of the electron gyrofrequency. We also pointed out that a change in the properties of artificial small-scale ionospheric irregularities (striations) excited by high-power radio waves is not the cause of a change in the properties of the down-shifted maximum and the BUM during the two-frequency modification of the ionospheric plasma. Ways for the further development of these studies are discussed.