Interaction of oblique wave beam with ionospheric layer F2 Original Research Article

Interaction of a powerful obliquely incident wave beam of decameter radio waves with the ionospheric F2 layer is analyzed. Much like the linear case, propagation through the natural anti-waveguide layer F2 splits the initial beam. Some part of its energy leaks through the ionospheric layer, the other part goes back along a downward trajectory. However, nonlinearity leads to further stratification of the ionospheric layer. A new feature, in comparison with the linear case, is appearing a narrow waveguide beneath the F2 layer maximum which traps a small part of the beam energy. We study the relationship between these parts of the wave field in a simplified model of parabolic F2 layer, with nonlinearity caused by thermal plasma expulsion from the high field intensity region. Analytical results are supplemented with numerical estimates of the effects.