Generation of acoustic-gravity waves in ionospheric HF heating experiments : simulating large-scale natural heat sources

Abstract

In this thesis, we investigate the potential role played by large-scale anomalous heat sources (e.g. prolonged heat wave events) in generating acoustic-gravity waves (AGWs) that might trigger widespread plasma turbulence in the ionospheric layer. The main hypothesis is that, the thermal gradients associated with the heat wave fronts could act as a source of powerful AGW capable of triggering ionospheric plasma turbulence over extensive areas. In our investigations, first we are going to examine a case study of the summer 2006 North American heat wave event. Our examination of GPS-derived total electron content (TEC) data over the North American sector reveals a quite noticeable increase in the level of daily plasma density fluctuations during the summer 2006 heat wave period. Comparison with the summer 2005 and summer 2007 data further confirms that the observed increase of traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) during the summer 2006 heat wave period was not simply a regular seasonal phenomenon. Furthermore, a series of field experiments had been carried out at the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility in order to physically simulate the process of AGW/TID generation by large-scale thermal gradients in the ionosphere. In these ionospheric HF heating experiments, we create some time-varying artificial thermal gradients at an altitude of 200-300 km above the Earth's surface using vertically-transmitted amplitude-modulated 0-mode HF heater waves. For our experiments, a number of radio diagnostic instruments had been utilized to detect the characteristic signatures of heater-generated AGW/TID. So far, we have been able to obtain several affirmative indications that some artificial AGW/TID are indeed being radiated out from the heated plasma volume during the HAARP-AGW experiments. Based on the experimental evidence, we may conclude that it is certainly quite plausible for large-scale thermal gradients associated with severe heat wave events to generate some AGW which might induce widespread plasma turbulence far in space.