Author

Naseem Rayyan

Date Approved

3-14-2015

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department or School

Physics and Astronomy

Committee Member

Dr. J. P. Sheerin, Ph.D., Advisor

Committee Member

Dr. M. Thomsen, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Dr. P. Koehn, Ph.D.

Abstract

The results of several atmospheric heating experiments, which we performed at the HAARP facility, are presented. We sought to provide a multidimensional characterization of the various artificial ionospheric heating features by varying HF aspect angle, HF pump frequency, UHF pointing angle, and heating pulse time. Through the use of the HAARP HF array and the MUIR UHF radar, we observed cascade (LDI), collapse (cavitons), parametric decay lines (PDI), outshifted plasma lines (OPL), overshoot, and artificial field aligned irregularities (AFAI), as well as some features that have not been previously studied, for instance, the “bursty” plasma lines. Through a collaborative effort with the University of Michigan’s RAX-2 satellite, we saw that the small cubesats may be able to detect artificially produced ionospheric irregularities such as AFAI during continuous heating experiments.

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