Geospace perturbations that accompanied rocket launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome

Рубрика: 
Space Physics
Luo, Y, 1Chernogor, LF, Zhdanko, YH
1V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Kinemat. fiz. nebesnyh tel (Online) 2022, 38(6):3-24
https://doi.org/10.15407/kfnt2022.06.003
Язык: Ukrainian
Аннотация: 

The rocket engine burns release energy comparable to that, which is characteristic of the many natural processes. The energy released by large rockets attains 10—100 TJ, and the engine power 0.1—1 TW. The energy released per unit volume is much higher than the specific energy content and energy release of all natural processes. Disturbances arise in the underlying surface, the atmosphere, the ionosphere, and even in the magnetosphere in the course of the rocket booster stages burns and the orbital maneuvering subsystem engine firings. Effects from rocket engine burns have been studied for a period longer than 60 years, and the results have been published in hundreds of scientific papers, reference books, and monographs. As it turns out, the effects produced exhibit diverse geophysical phenomena. The effects near the rocket trajectory, namely, the area of electron number density depressed (ionospheric hole), as well as the generation of infrasound and atmospheric gravity waves (density waves) have been studied best. The study of the geomagnetic effect has played a prominent role. The Doppler, Faraday, ionosonde, magnetometer, incoherent scatter, etc., techniques has been used in the study. The effects accompanying the rocket booster stages burns and the orbital maneuvering subsystem engine firings are still under study. Large-scale (~ 1—10 Mm) perturbations arising from rocket engine burns have been studied for many years. Their study has contributed enormously to understand better the mechanisms for transporting perturbations from rockets to global-scale distances, the subsystem coupling in the Earth — atmosphere — ionosphere — magnetosphere system, and ecological consequences of rocket engine burns. Perturbations arising in the atmosphere and geospace significantly depend on the state of atmospheric-space weather, local time, season, and solar cycle. The perturbations arising in the system mentioned above even during the launches of two identical rockets can significantly differ. In addition, the rockets are differing in power, trajectories, kind of fuel, and the cosmodrome location. Therefore, the study of the subsystems response to the rocket booster stages burns and the orbital maneuvering subsystem engine firings remain pressing scientific and technical issues. The purpose of the present work is to analyze the ionospheric effects from the Soyuz and Proton rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome during solar cycle 24. The ionospheric effects caused by the Soyuz and Proton rockets launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome were observed by the vertical incidence HF Doppler radar. Generally, the measurements are taken at two fixed frequencies, 3.2 and 4.2 MHz. The smaller frequency is effective in studying dynamic processes acting in the E and F1 layers, and the greater frequency is effective in conducting observations of the F1 and F2 layers. The parameters of ionospheric perturbations observed after 81 Soyuz rocket launches and 53 Proton rocket launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome in 2009—2021 have been analyzed. A few groups of time delays have been confirmed to exist between the rocket launch and the supposed ionospheric response to the rocket launch. The magnitudes of these time delays varied from ~ 10 to ~ 300 min. The groups of the time delays correspond to a few groups of the apparent horizontal speeds of disturbance propagation (100—200 m/s; 390 ± 23 m/s; 0.97 ± 0.10 km/s; 1.28 ± 0.13 km/s; 1.68 ± 0.13 km/s; 2.07 ± 0.13 km/s, as well as ~ 8 km/s). The slow atmospheric gravity waves, atmospheric gravity waves of man-made origin, density shock waves, slow and ordinary MHD waves have such speeds. As a rule, the resulting perturbations, except for shock waves, exhibited a quasiperiodicity at ~ 5 to ~ 20-min period, and the Doppler shift amplitude was observed to be 0.1—0.3 Hz. The quasi-periodic variations in the electron density were observed to usually have a relative amplitude of ~ 1—10%, and sometimes to attain ~ 20 %.
Ключевые слова: apparent speed, Doppler radio sounding, Doppler shift, Doppler spectra, ionospheric effects, quasiperiodic disturbance, rocket launches, solar cycle 24, statistical analysis, time delay

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