FDTD analysis of HF heating effect on local ionosphere

An auxiliary differential equation (ADE) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is applied to analyze the effect of ionospheric high frequency (HF) heating on electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation. First ionosphere background parameters in East China generated from IRI are introduced in the study model and nonlinear phenomenon during ionospheric heating process at low altitude between 60 and 120km is simulated. Then vertical distribution of electron temperature in initial and saturation condition is used to simulate the EM wave propagation in the ionosphere. During the simulation, an ADE plasma model is employed to simulate the dispersive characteristics of the ionosphere. The simulation result shows that the ionospheric heating has a direct influence on the echo wave.