Historical overview of HF ionospheric modification research
Radio waves have inadvertently modified the Earth's ionosphere since the Luxembourg observations of Tellegen in 1933 and perhaps since Marconi in 1901. The history of ionospheric modification by radio waves is reviewed, beginning with Marconi, describing the Luxembourg effect and its explanations, and its early use to deduce the properties of the lower ionosphere in the 1930s. The measurements became more sophisticated in the 1950s, leading to the call for high-power high-frequency modification experiments in the upper ionosphere. Beginning in 1970, radio facilities became available of sufficient powers to induce changes in the ionospheric plasma detectable by a wide array of diagnostic instruments and techniques. A summary of these effects is presented based upon work up to 1990. These studies were originally motivated as a means of better understanding the natural ionosphere using a weak perturbational approach. However, a rich spectrum of nonlinear wave-plasma interactions was quickly discovered and ionospheric modification research became strongly motivated by issues in basic plasma physics. The ionosphere and near-Earth space are now exploited as an exceptional plasma laboratory-without-walls for the study of fundamental plasma processes requiring large spatial or temporal scales. Here we present a brief overview of these processes and phenomena, illustrated using results obtained from the Arecibo ionospheric modification facilities. The lessons learned and phenomena explored thus far offer many opportunities for controlling the ionospheric environment critical to many civilian and military telecommunications systems, both to disrupt systems normally operational and to create new propagation paths otherwise unavailable.
- Research Organization:
- Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 7012569
- Report Number(s):
- AD-P-006493/1/XAB
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: This article is from 'Conference Proceedings on Ionospheric Modification and its Potential to Enhance or Degrade the Performance of Military Systems Held in Bergen, Norway on 28-31 May 1990, AD-A239 823, p3-1 thru p3-13
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
IONOSPHERE
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
COMMUNICATIONS
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INTERACTIONS
LABORATORIES
LUXEMBURG EFFECT
MODIFICATIONS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
WAVE PROPAGATION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RADIATIONS
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)