Multi-frequency HF radar measurements of artificial F-region field-aligned irregularities

• Published in: Annales Geophysicae
• Main Authors: Senior, A., Borisov, N. D., Kosch, M. J., Yeoman, T. K., Honary, F., Rietveld, M. T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2004
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-22-3503-2004; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00035054; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00035008/angeo-22-3503-2004.pdf; https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/22/3503/2004/angeo-22-3503-2004.pdf

We present radar backscatter power measurements using the CUTLASS HF radar at Hankasalmi, Finland from F-region field-aligned irregularities induced by HF radio pumping with the EISCAT Heating facility. A novel radar operating mode is used in which the radar frequency is rapidly swept through a number of bands, making use of the varying ionospheric refraction to probe different heights within the heated region. We obtain height profiles of backscatter power which correspond to e-folding scale lengths of around 20km for the mean-square electron density perturbations for pump wave interaction heights in the region of 240-250km in daytime conditions. The results are in agreement with previous measurements made by other techniques. We discuss some problems with the method and suggest improvements for future experiments.