Survey of conditions for artificial aurora experiments by the second electron gyro-harmonic at EISCAT Tromsø using dynasonde data

• Published in: Earth, Planets and Space
• Main Authors: T. T. Tsuda, M. T. Rietveld, M. J. Kosch, S. Oyama, Y. Ogawa, K. Hosokawa, S. Nozawa, T. Kawabata, A. Mizuno
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2018
• Subjects: Artificial aurora; Ionospheric heating; Second electron gyro-harmonic; EISCAT; Tromsø; Dynasonde; Geography. Anthropology. Recreation; G; Geodesy; QB275-343; Geology; QE1-996.5
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-018-0864-y; https://doaj.org/article/6f6a9457633649968c85c2bb4c34affe

Abstract We report a brief survey of matching conditions for artificial aurora optical experiments utilizing the second electron gyro-harmonic (2.7-MHz frequency) in F region heating with O-mode at the EISCAT Tromsø site using dynasonde data from 2000 to 2017. Our survey indicates the following: The possible conditions for successful artificial aurora experiments are concentrated on twilight hours in both evening and morning, compared with late night hours; the possible conditions appear in fall, winter, and spring, while there is no chance in summer, and the month-to-month variation among fall, winter, and spring is not so clear; the year-to-year variation is well correlated with the solar activity. These characteristics in the case of 2.7-MHz frequency are basically similar to those previously reported in the case of 4-MHz frequency. However, the number of days meeting the possible condition in the case of 2.7-MHz frequency is obviously large, compared with that in the case of 4-MHz frequency. In particular, unlike the 4-MHz frequency operation, the 2.7-MHz frequency operation can provide many chances for successful artificial aurora experiments even during the solar minimum.