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

• Main Authors: Rietveld, Michael T., Senior, A., Borisov, N.D., Kosch, M.J., Yeoman, T.K., Honary, F.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2004
• Subjects: VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Fysikk: 430::Rom- og plasmafysikk: 437; Ionosphere; active experiments; ionosphere irregularities; instruments and techniques; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/612

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.