Articles | Volume 20, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-20-647-2002
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-20-647-2002
31 May 2002
 | 31 May 2002

Predicted and observed characteristics of small-scale field-aligned irregularities generated in the F-region by low power HF heating

E. Kolesnikova, T. R. Robinson, and J. A. Davies

Abstract. Simultaneous HF scattering from the different regions of the heated volume is used to investigate characteristics of the small-scale field-aligned irregularities in the F-region. Time of growth, decay rate and saturation level for different pump powers are deduced from the observations and are compared with their behaviour predicted by the thermal parametric instability model. As a result, the estimates of the density and of the temperature modifications inside of the irregularities are obtained.

Key words. Ionosphere (ionospheric irregularities)