Experimental results from the HERO Project: In situ measurements of ionospheric modifications using sounding rockets

Abstract

The HEating ROcket project HERO comprised the first in situ experiments to measure artificial ionospheric modifications at F layer heights set up by radio waves transmitted from the Heating facility at Ramfjord near Tromsø in Northern Norway. Four instrumented payloads were launched on sounding rockets from Andøya Rocket Range during the autumn of 1982 into a sunlit ionosphere with the sun close to the horizon. The payloads recorded modifications, in particular, the presence of electron plasma waves near the reflection level of the heating wave. The amplitude and phase of the three components of the electric and magnetic fields of the heating wave were measured simultaneously as a function of altitude. Coherent spectra of the three electric field components of the locally generated electron plasma waves were obtained in a 50‐kHz‐wide band. At the same time quasi‐continuous measurements were made on several fixed frequencies from 4 kHz to 16 kHz below the heating frequency and in the VLF‐range using linear dipole antennas. Moreover, measurements were made of electron temperature, suprathermal electrons and local electron density along the rocket trajectory. The experimental results will be presented and discussed.