P. Eglitis et al., THE PHASE SPEED OF ARTIFICIAL FIELD-ALIGNED IRREGULARITIES OBSERVED BY CUTLASS DURING HF MODIFICATION OF THE AURORAL IONOSPHERE, J GEO R-S P, 103(A2), 1998, pp. 2253-2259
The RF heater facility at Ramfjordmoen, Tromso can generate field-alig
ned plasma irregularities in the field of view of the Cooperative UK T
win-Located Auroral Sounding System (CUTLASS) coherent backscatter rad
ar at Hankasalmi, Finland. In a recent set of experiments conducted in
April 1996, the phase speed of the generated plasma irregularities ha
s been compared with independent measurements of the plasma drift velo
city observed by the European Incoherent Scatter radar facility. The p
hase speed of the plasma irregularities is found to be equal to the co
mponent of the plasma drift velocity in the direction of propagation o
f the plasma wave. This result is a further verification of the high p
erformance of the CUTLASS radar and also demonstrates how artificially
generated plasma irregularities can be employed to detect small plasm
a drift velocities and contribute to geophysical research. The charact
eristics of the Doppler spectrum of the artificial plasma waves are al
so described and discussed.