Artificial disturbances of the ionosphere over the Millstone Hill Incoherent Scatter Radar from dedicated burns of the space shuttle orbital maneuver subsystem engines

Details Artificial disturbances of the ionosphere over the Millstone Hill Incoherent Scatter Radar from dedicated burns of the space shuttle orbital maneuver subsystem engines Artificial disturbances of the ionosphere over the Millstone Hill Incoherent Scatter Radar from dedicated burns of the space shuttle orbital maneuver subsystem engines

May 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005jgra..11005311b&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 110, Issue A5, CiteID A05311

Physics

3

Ionosphere: Active Experiments, Ionosphere: Midlatitude Ionosphere, Ionosphere: Ionospheric Disturbances

Scientific paper

Two ionospheric modification experiments were carried out over the incoherent scatter radar (ISR) located at Millstone Hill, Massachusetts. These experiments are part of the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Localized Exhaust (SIMPLEX) program at the Naval Research Laboratory. The experiments use 10-s burns of the dual orbital maneuver subsystem (OMS) engines to produce the injection of high-speed molecules in the ionosphere near 380 km altitude. Charge exchange between the high-speed exhaust molecules and the ambient oxygen ions yields molecular ion beams that disturb the natural state of the ionosphere. Radar scatter provides measurements of the ion velocity distributions and plasma turbulence that result from the ion beam interactions. Ground-based observations with the University of Massachusetts Digisonde record the ionospheric density depressions resulting from recombination of the molecular ions with electrons. Prompt signatures of nonequilibrium ion distributions in the OMS engine plume are seen in the data taken during the SIMPLEX III and IV experiments for the space shuttle flights STS-108 and STS-110, respectively. The SIMPLEX III observations are much weaker than those during SIMPLEX IV. These differences are primarily attributed to the changes in the viewing directions for the radar beam. During SIMPLEX IV, the radar is looking more downstream from the exhaust injection and the stimulation of plasma turbulence is seen with the ISR for over 30 s at distances up to 200 km from the burn altitude along the radar beam. Strong backscatter in the radar spectra is attributed to ion acoustic waves driven by the pickup ion beams. Both experiments provide large-scale cavities detected by the Digisonde for up to 20 min after the engine burn. These cavities are the result of ion-electron recombination of the pickup ions.

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