Equatorial ionospheric irregularities produced by the Brazilian ionospheric modification experiment (BIME)

Technical Report · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5795784

Klobuchar, J A; Abdu, M A

On two separate evenings in September 1982, rockets were launched into the bottomside equatorial F2 region off the coast of Natal, Brazil, to inject chemicals, consisting of mainly H2O and CO2, to create a hole in ionization. The chemicals were injected near the height where the density gradient was steepest, and at a time when the F2 region was rising rapidly, to see whether plasma bubble irregularities could be generated from instabilities triggered by the ionization hole. The eastward drifts of these artificial depletions were observed by the time difference in the TEC features observed at various TEC monitoring stations, and from the changing range of oblique ionosonde echoes observed by an ionosonde located 300 km magnetically east of the chemical release point. Their subsequent evolution into plasma bubble irregularities was demonstrated from the observations of spread F echoes, strong-amplitude scintillation, and TEC depletion at distances of from 300 to 500 km eastward of the release points. The fact that similar behavior of the ionosphere was observed during the evenings of both rocket chemical releases, and on no other nights of the campaign, is strong evidence of successful artificial generation of bubble irregularities by chemical injection into the bottomside F2 region.

• Research Organization: Air Force Geophysics Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5795784
• Report Number(s): AD-A-229967/5/XAB; GL-TR--90-0318
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BRAZIL
BUBBLES
DENSITY
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
F REGION
F2 LAYER
INJECTION
INTAKE
IONIZATION
IONOSONDES
IONOSPHERE
LATIN AMERICA
MODIFICATIONS
MONITORING
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLASMA DENSITY
RADIO EQUIPMENT
ROCKETS
SOUTH AMERICA
SPREAD F