Characteristics of the spatial spectrum of plasma irregularities excited at mid-latitudes by the high-power “Sura” facility

We present the results of analysis of the spectra of amplitude scintillations at a frequency of 150 MHz and a difference phase at frequencies of 150 and 400 MHz, which were obtained in the experiment on radio tomography of artificial ionospheric turbulence (AIT) excited by the mid-latitude high-power “Sura” heating facility 1]. We used the data on radio probing of the AIT region at a frequency of 150 MHz by signals from artificial satellites in near-polar circular orbits at altitudes of 1000 km above the Earth’s surface. The signals were received simultaneously at three spaced apart points located at distances of about 100–150 km from each other along the projection of the satellite trajectory onto the Earth’s surface. The analysis of the data shows that in the range of scales smaller than 0.5–1.0 km across the geomagnetic field, the AIT spatial spectrum can be described by the power-law function with the spectral index p_⊥ = 1.7–2.5. For irregularities with the same transverse scales, the spectral index in the direction of the magnetic field amounts to p_‖ = 5–7. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 50, No. 8, pp. 722–730, August 2007