Artificial ducts caused by HF heating of the ionosphere by HAARP

Abstract : We report on satellite observations of plasma density enhancements (ducts) in the topside ionosphere during four HAARP/BRIOCHE campaigns during 2009–2010. Artificial ducts, caused by high-power HF radio wave injections from the HAARP transmitter toward the magnetic zenith, are detected by the DEMETER and DMSP satellites on a regular basis when there is a perceptible ionospheric F2 peak density. Overall, the plasma density enhancements detected between 0930 and 1230 LT varied from 3–13%, while those during 1730–2215 LT were typically 15–40%. We also used a modified SAMI2 model to study the artificial ducts’ mechanism driven by HF electron heating in the bottomside F2 region. The heating builds up the plasma pressure, thus pushing plasma along the magnetic field. The simulation results performed for the input parameters similar to the conditions of the heating experiments are in fair agreement with the pertinent observations. The ducts seem to be produced most efficiently for heating frequencies quite close to the critical frequency foF2.