Features of Propagation of the Acoustic-Gravity Waves Generated by High-Power Periodic Radiation

We present the results of the bandpass filtering of temporal variations of the Doppler frequency shift of radio signals from a vertical-sounding Doppler radar located near the city of Kharkov when the ionosphere was heated by high-power periodic (with 10 and 15-min periods) radiation from the Sura facility. The filtering was done in the ranges of periods that are close to the acoustic cutoff period and the Brunt-Vaisala period (4-6, 8-12, and 13-17 min). Oscillations with periods of 4-6 min and amplitudes of 50-100 mHz were not recorded in fact. Oscillations with periods of 8-12 and 13-17 min and amplitudes of 60-100 mHz were detected in almost all the sessions. In the former and the latter oscillations, the time of delay with respect to the heater switch-on was close to 100 min and about 40-50 min, respectively. These values correspond to group propagation velocities of about 160 and 320-400 m/s. The Doppler shift oscillations were caused by the acoustic-gravity waves which led to periodic variations in the electron number density with a relative amplitude of about 0.1-1.0%. It was demonstrated that the acoustic-gravity waves were not recorded when the effective power of the Sura facility was equal to 50 MW and they were confidently observed when the effective power was increased up to 130 MW. It is shown that the period of the wave processes was determined by the period of the heating-pause cycles, and the duration of the wave trains did not depend on the duration of the series of heating-pause cycles. The data suggest that the generation mechanism of recorded wave disturbances is different from the mechanism proposed in 1970-1990.