Numerical modeling of ionospheric current artificial modulation at low latitude
低纬地区电离层电流的人工调制数值模拟

Powerful high-frequency radio waves can efficiently heat the lower ionosphere. If using HF heater modulated at ELF/VLF, the electron temperature will oscillate with the modulation frequency and lead to the periodic changes of the electric conductivity, resulting in periodic change of the current present in the heated region which can act as an equivalent ELF/VLF virtual antenna for the generation of electromagnetic waves at the modulation frequency. These early researches mainly focused on the high latitude and polar area. In this paper, the possibility of the ionospheric artificial modulation at low latitude will be discussed. The theoretical method and numerical modeling shows that the periodical modification will lead to the conductivities at low latitude periodically changing efficiently and the heated ionospheric area acts as a radiation current source of the ELF/VLF waves. Furthermore, the effects of different parameters and incident conditions on the modification are also studied.