TEC variations at high latitudes caused by artificial HF heating

Abstract

A possibility to improve our understanding of high latitude ionospheric radio disturbance phenomena seen in GNSS signals is artificial ionospheric heating. An induced and controlled electron temperature increase leads to localized and temporal disturbances and can be produced by the EISCATs heating facility. First investigations using a 2D 3 fluid model were showing that similar to natural heating and ionization, a large variation of TEC of the order of ˜1 TECU can be expected from F-region heating. The use of artificial HF heating provides the opportunity of conducting a controlled experiment for TEC variation or even scintillation. The result of a controlled input causing an ionospheric response, in terms of plasma density, electron/ion temperature and vertical ion velocity, is measured. The present study reports on GEISHA, which is a coordinated measurement campaign including several EISCAT heating experiments simultaneously monitored by ISR, ionosondes and dual frequency signals transmitted by GNSS obtained from two high frequency receiver stations. This systematic artificial heating campaign at high latitudes is designed to understand the impact of the ionospheric plasma and its irregularities on GNSS signal propagation. Web page: http://swaciweb.dlr.de/