Recent Advances and Difficulties of Infrasonic Wave Investigation in the Ionosphere

Acoustic waves have a remarkable ability to transfer energy from the ground up to the uppermost layers of the atmosphere. On the ground, there are many permanent sources of infrasound, and also pulsed and/or sporadic sources (e.g., sea waves, infrasonic and sonic noise of cities, lightning, earthquakes, explosions, etc.). The infrasonic waves carry away the major part of their energy upwards through the atmosphere. What are the consequences of the upward energy transfer? What heights of the atmosphere are supplied by energy from various sources of an infrasonic wave? In most cases, the answers to these questions are not well known at present. The only opportunity to monitor the propagation of an infrasonic wave to high altitudes is to watch for its influence on the ionospheric plasma. Unfortunately, most of standard equipment for ionospheric sounding, as a rule, cannot detect plasma fluctuations in the infrasonic range. Besides, the form of an infrasonic wave strongly varies during propagation due to nonlinear effects. However, the development of the Doppler method of radiosounding of the ionosphere has enabled progress to be made. Simultaneously, the ionospheric method for sensing aboveground and underground explosions has been developed. Its main advantage is the remote observation of an explosion in the near field zone by means of short radio waves, i.e., the radio sounding of the ionosphere directly above the explosion. The theory of propagation of an acoustic pulse produced by an explosion on the ground up to ionospheric heights has been developed better than the theory for other sources, and has been quantitatively confirmed by experiments. A review of some advances in the area of infrasound investigations at ionospheric heights is given and some current problems are presented.

[1]  S. Gupta.  Expansion of plasma in the wake region of moving rockets-evidence of enhanced electron temperature , 1988 .

[2]  T. Fitzgerald.  Observations of total electron content perturbations on GPS signals caused by a ground level explosion , 1997 .

[3]  P. Križan,et al.  Persistence of the planetary wave type oscillations in fo F2 over Europe , 2003 .

[4]  T. Yeoman,et al.  The detection of atmospheric waves produced by the total solar eclipse of 11 August 1999 , 2004 .

[5]  E. Afraimovich,et al.  The parameters of shock acoustic waves generated during rocket launches , 2001 .

[6]  Philippe Lognonné,et al.  Acoustic waves generated from seismic surface waves: propagation properties determined from Doppler sounding observations and normal-mode modelling , 2004 .

[7]  T. Fitzgerald,et al.  Effects of 450‐kg surface explosions on HF radio reflection from the E layer , 1997 .

[8]  Elisabeth Blanc,et al.  Acoustic propagation and atmosphere characteristics derived from infrasonic waves generated by the Concorde. , 2002, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[9]  S. Warshaw,et al.  Detection of explosive events by monitoring acoustically-induced geomagnetic perturbations , 1999 .

[10]  Dieter Bilitza,et al.  International reference ionosphere , 1978 .

[11]  J. Bernard Minster,et al.  GPS, Earthquakes, the Ionosphere, and the Space Shuttle , 1998 .

[12]  G. Schubert,et al.  Acoustic wave heating of the thermosphere , 2001 .

[13]  J. Miles.  Decay of Spherical Blast Waves , 1967 .

[14]  Scott Edward Palo,et al.  Variability of the ionosphere , 2000 .

[15]  E. Blanc.  Interaction of an acoustic wave of artificial origin with the ionosphere as observed by vertical HF sounding at total reflection levels , 1984 .

[16]  D. D. Lee,et al.  Observations of an ionospheric perturbation arising from the Coalinga Earthquake of May 2, 1983 , 1984 .

[17]  V. M. Krasnov,et al.  Disturbances of the ionosphere of blast and acoustic waves generated at ionospheric heights by rockets , 2003 .

[18]  C. Nagasawa,et al.  HF-Doppler observations of acoustic waves excited by the Urakawa-Oki earthquake on 21 March 1982 , 1984 .

[19]  P. Lognonné,et al.  Normal modes modelling of post‐seismic ionospheric oscillations , 2001 .

[20]  Jan Laštovička,et al.  A re-analysis of the atmospheric and ionospheric effects of the Flixborough explosion , 2003 .

[21]  Charles R. Wilson,et al.  Listening to the secret sounds of Earth's atmosphere , 2002 .

[22]  Michael J. Rycroft,et al.  The global atmospheric electric circuit, solar activity and climate change , 2000 .

[23]  V. M. Krasnov,et al.  The acoustic field in the ionosphere caused by an underground nuclear explosion , 2005 .

[24]  V. M. Krasnov,et al.  The spatial structure of the acoustic wave field generated in the atmosphere by a point explosion , 2001 .

[25]  Lynn R. Sykes,et al.  Four decades of progress in seismic identification help verify the CTBT , 2002 .

[26]  A. Jacobson,et al.  Observations of acoustic-gravity waves in the thermosphere following Space Shuttle ascents , 1994 .

[27]  J. Laštovička.  Observations of tides and planetary waves in the atmosphere-ionosphere system , 1997 .

[28]  L. Griffiths,et al.  HF radio measurements of high‐altitude acoustic waves from a ground‐level explosion , 1966 .

[29]  G. Rudenko,et al.  Calculation of ionospheric effects due to acoustic radiation from an underground nuclear explosion , 1995 .

[30]  J. B. Davies,et al.  Modeling of atmospheric and ionospheric disturbances from shallow seismic sources , 1998 .

[31]  Milton Garces,et al.  Global morphology of infrasound propagation , 2003 .

[32]  D H MacQueen.  Analytic model for surface ground motion with spall induced by underground nuclear tests , 1982 .

[33]  M. Parrot,et al.  Feasibility study of ionospheric perturbations triggered by monochromatic infrasonic waves emitted with a ground-based experiment , 2004 .

[34]  G. Schubert,et al.  Acoustic waves in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere generated by deep tropical convection , 2003 .

[35]  E. Blanc,et al.  Observations in the upper atmosphere of infrasonic waves from natural or artificial sources: a summary , 1985 .

[36]  M. Parrot,et al.  Response of the ionosphere to natural and man-made acoustic sources , 1995 .

[37]  K. Davies,et al.  Ionospheric radio waves , 1969 .

[38]  P. F. Dubois,et al.  Preliminary theoretical acoustic and rf sounding calculations for MILL RACE , 1981 .

[39]  The use of GPS arrays in detecting shock-acoustic waves generated during rocket launchings , 2000, physics/0007043.

[40]  V. M. Krasnov,et al.  Acoustic energy transfer to the upper atmosphere from surface chemical and underground nuclear explosions , 2006 .

[41]  A. Hedin.  Extension of the MSIS Thermosphere Model into the middle and lower atmosphere , 1991 .

[42]  Milton A. Garces,et al.  EVALUATION OF INFRASONIC DETECTION ALGORITHMS , 2002 .

[43]  Robert D. van der Hilst,et al.  Searching for seismic scattering off mantle interfaces between 800 km and 2000 km depth , 2003 .

[44]  V. M. Krasnov,et al.  The acoustic field in the atmosphere and ionosphere caused by a point explosion on the ground , 2003 .

[45]  K. Hocke,et al.  A review of atmospheric gravity waves and travelling ionospheric disturbances: 1982-1995 , 1996 .

[46]  B. Hofmann-Wellenhof,et al.  Global Positioning System , 1992 .

[47]  M. Herraiz,et al.  Effects on the Ionosphere Due to Phenomena Occurring Below it , 2003 .

[48]  Susan K. Avery,et al.  Empirical wind model for the upper, middle and lower atmosphere , 1996 .

[49]  K. Davies,et al.  Ionospheric disturbances by severe tropospheric weather storms , 1975 .

[50]  R. Pfaff,et al.  Large amplitude quasi-periodic fluctuations associated with a mid-latitude sporadic E layer , 1995 .

[51]  W. V. Hereford,et al.  Observed high-altitude pressure waves from an underground and a surface explosion , 1991 .

[52]  O. Savina,et al.  Magnetospheric VLF response to the atmospheric infrasonic waves , 2003 .