Investigation of incoherent scatter radar spectra features with stimulated electromagnetic emissions at EISCAT

Abstract Electromagnetic (EM) and electrostatic (ES) emissions can be generated in the ionosphere by high-power high-frequency (HF) radio waves transmitted from the ground. The signatures of the EM emissions observed on the ground are known as Stimulated Electromagnetic Emissions (SEE) and can be employed for remote measurement of ionospheric parameters. The experimental data from recent HF heating experiments near the fourth electron gyro-frequency ( 4 f ce ) at EISCAT are presented. This paper compares the temporal behavior of SEE within a few Hertz up to 50 kHz of the transmission frequency to the time evolution of enhanced ion line (EHIL) in the incoherent scatter radar (ISR) spectrum. The correlation of Wideband SEE (WSEE) spectral lines within 1 kHz to 100 kHz such as the downshifted maximum (DM), downshifted peak (DP), and broad upshifted maximum (BUM), with HF enhanced ion lines (EHIL) is shown. It is shown that WSEE spectral lines can be used to reproduce the EHIL characteristics including altitude range, rise and decay time, maximum and minimum amplitude. A data reduction technique is developed to derive ionospheric parameters such as the electron density profile near the interaction altitude, magnetic field strength B 0 as well as the altitude profile of the EHIL using the temporal evolution of WSEE spectral lines near n f ce .