Results of complex radiosounding of ionospheric disturbances generated by the transport spacecraft “Progress” onboard thrusters

Abstract

Active space experiments (SE) carry out to study spatio-temporal characteristics of disturbances emerging in the ionospheric plasma due to the functionality of transport spacecraft (TSC) "Progress" onboard thrusters. The main research facility is the Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar (ISR). Results showed that small masses of TSC exhaust product generate disturbances in the ionosphere with size of tens kilometers and with lifetime up to 20 minutes. The amplitude of a depression in the plasma density variations reached up to 40%.