As a part of the implementation of the global satellite system, SpaceX company has been launching Starlink satellites for two years. The launches have been successful until recently. However, on February 3, the launch turned to be unsuccessful, 40 of 49 satellites were lost. The company's specialists believe that the main reason for this incident is an increase in the atmosphere density on the intermediate orbit that was the result of a magnetic storm that occurred on February 3-4, 2022. Based on the analysis of the geomagnetic state on the days of previous launches and the development of the magnetic storm during the latest launch, it was shown that other mechanisms of the destructive manifestation of space weather were also possible.
KEYWORDS: Receivers, Radar, Signal processing, Digital signal processing, Antennas, Plasma, Magnetism, Wave propagation, Transmitters, Standards development
On December 14, 2021, experimental investigations on radar detection of Geminid show meteors were carried out on the basis of the scientific association EISCAT. Researchers thought that detection efficiency could be improved by artificial modification of the ionosphere. To do that, radiation of the ionosphere by a powerful heating wave was realized on EISCAT heating facility. We recorded the scattered heating wave parameters using the SDR receiver network. That allowed us to detect the features of plasma swirl motion and unusual structure of velocity distribution, which are likely to be determined by meteor passage though the region of active impact on the ionosphere.
Under the active impact on the ionosphere, artificial inhomogeneities are formed. Their properties are investigated with incoherent scattering radars, aspect scattering and test wave methods etc. Scattering on ionospheric artificial inhomogeneities of a heating wave as a mean of energy injection into the inter-layer ionospheric waveguide is of interest. As a rule, in order to do that, scattering on ionospheric magneticallyoriented inhomogeneities is applied. The efficiency of energy injection into the ionospheric waveguide is determined by a scattered wave spatial distribution otherwise by a direction diagram of magnetically-oriented inhomogeneity set. To estimate their directional properties, SDR (Software-defined radio) technology will be used.
Among other things, artificial magnetically oriented irregularities are generated by the experiments on active impact on the ionosphere. They can be used for interlayer ionospheric waveguide excitation. We can suggest that the efficiency of waveguide excitation depends on mutual location of magnetically oriented irregularities and a feed element as well as on their topology in the interlayer ionospheric waveguide. To verify this hypothesis, electromagnetic radiation monitoring was applied in Kamchatka. The radiation was generated by the active impact on the ionosphere in Troms (Norway).
The paper considers a possibility of investigation of magnetically oriented irregularities in the ionosphere using a SuperDARN system. To determine the parameters of such irregularities, the authors suggest applying backscattering of decameter waves. As a rule, scattering on magnetically oriented irregularities of the ionosphere is considered to be an aspect one directed along the Earth magnetic field lines. It is shown that under certain conditions, such as propagation path orientation along the Earth magnetic field lines, polarization and frequency of the emitted wave, not only aspect but also resonance backscattering of decameter waves is possible. Results of experimental observations of such scattering on magnetically oriented irregularities of the ionosphere in Kamchatka are presented.
Variations of ionospheric-magnetospheric relation energy, as one of the possible outer climatology factors, may be traced on the basis of analysis of natural geophysical phenomena such as ionosphere artificial radio radiation and magnetic storms. Experiments on active impact on the ionosphere have been carried out for quite a long time in Russia as well. The most modern heating stand is located in Alaska; it has been used within the HAARP Program. The possibility of this stand to affect geophysical fields, in particular, the geomagnetic field is of interest.
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