Multi-Frequency HF Observations of Farley-Buneman Phase Velocities

Abstract

With the potential use of SuperDARN radars in mind and to test the theoretical predictions for dependence of the phase velocity of Farley-Buneman waves on radar frequencies in the HF range, a statistical analysis was made of over 11,000 specifically selected spectra from multi-frequency observations by the SuperDARN ykkvibaer radar in September-October 2000. Good qualitative agreement was found between the observed and predicted frequency dependence for slightly disturbed magnetic conditions. Assuming that increased magnetic activity (higher Kp) manifests itself via enhanced electron temperature and applying the algorithm of the control parameters of Kagan & Kissack [1], it was shown that in agreement with observations, the dependence of the FB waves phase velocity on the irregularity wave number (radar frequency) should decrease with increasing electron temperature (Kp). The results make it clear that specially designed multi-frequency SuperDARN experiments would be a valuable tool in studying the HF FarleyBuneman waves at high latitudes.