A Coupled Ionosphere-Raytrace Model for Artificial HF Heating

Abstract:

The first self-consistent 3D model of artificial HF ionospheric heating has been developed. The model combines the first principles ionosphere model SAMI3/ESF and the ray trace code MoJo-15. The location of HF heating is calculated by simulating the ray path through the ionosphere and determining the average heating location. This new model has been used to successfully simulate the snapback effect discovered in a Arecibo HF heating experiment described by Bernhardt et al. [1988]. The simulations provide new insight into the physical mechanism for snapback. As Bernhardt et al. [1988] hypothesized, the heater wave is refracted by the density cavity, thus causing the location of heating to drift in longitude. The cause of snapback, however, is not that the ray snaps back to its original configuration once the density cavity has convected out of range. Instead, the density cavity convects into the path of the refracted ray such that only a small portion of the ray near the original heating location is above the threshold for HF heating. The heating location thus suddenly snaps back to the original location but the ray itself is still refracted in longitude.