Radio Emission of the High-Latitude Ionosphere as a Result of the Cutoff Mode of the Auroral Ionospheric Duct

Abstract

Issues of radio emission of the auroral ionosphere are considered with the use of the classical electrodynamics approach, according to which a natural waveguide is formed in the Earth’s ionosphere owing to formation of a trough in the high-latitude ionosphere. Parameters and characteristics of the auroral ionospheric dielectric duct have been estimated on the basis of the obtained experimental data on the properties of the ionospheric trough. The hypothesis that the LF and VLF electromagnetic auroral radio emission in the high-latitude ionosphere is due to the approach of the auroral waveguide to the cutoff mode has been considered. It has been found that the radio emission bands correspond to the eigenmodes of the ionospheric duct under consideration. It has been shown that, within the proposed approach, not only the radio emission frequency band of the high-latitude ionosphere but also the polarization of the radio emission observed in the experiments can be explained.