Phase perturbation measurements through a heated ionosphere

Abstract

High frequency radiowaves incident on an overdense (i.e., HF-frequency penetration frequency) ionosphere produce electron density irregularities. The effect of such ionospheric irregularities on the phase of UHF-radiowaves was determined. For that purpose the phase of radiowaves originating from celestial radio sources was observed with two antennas. The radiosources were chosen such that the line of sight to at least one of the antennas (usually both) passed through the modified volume of the ionosphere. Observations at 430 MHz and at 2380 MHz indicate that natural irregularities have a much stronger effect on the UHF phase fluctuations than the HF-induced irregularities for presently achieved HF-power densities of 20-80 uW/sq m. It is not clear whether some of the effects observed are the result of HF-modification of the ionosphere. Upper limits on the phase perturbations produced by HF-modification are 10 deg at 2380 MHz and 80 deg at 430 MHz