Creation of visible artificial optical emissions in the aurora by high-power radio waves

Generation of artificial light in the sky by means of high-power radio waves interacting with the ionospheric plasma has been envisaged since the early days of radio exploration of the upper atmosphere, with proposed applications ranging from regional night-time street lighting to atmospheric measurements. Weak optical emissions have been produced for decades in such ionospheric |[lsquo]|heating|[rsquo]| experiments, where they serve as key indicators of electron acceleration, thermal heating, and other effects of incompletely understood wave–particle interactions in the plasma under conditions difficult to replicate in the laboratory.

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