Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data

Boris Shpynev; Sergei Alsatkin; Vitaliy Khakhinov; Valentin Lebedev

doi:10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104

UDC 55

INVESTIGATING THE IONOSPHERE RESPONSE TO EXHAUST PRODUCTS OF “PROGRESS” CARGO SPACECRAFT ENGINES ON THE BASIS OF IRKUTSK INCOHERENT SCATTER RADAR DATA Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data

АА Аа

Published in Solar-Terrestrial Physics · Volume 3, Issue 1 · Pages 114–127 · Rubric: Results of current research

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104

Received: 21.04.2017 Accepted: 15.03.2026 Language of publication: en-US

Authors

Boris Shpynev

Sergei Alsatkin

Vitaliy Khakhinov

Valentin Lebedev

ORCID

Boris Shpynev

Academic degree: candidate of physical and mathematical sciences

Institute of Solar Terrestrial Physics SB RAS Russian Federation · Irkutsk

Sergei Alsatkin

Academic degree: candidate of physical and mathematical sciences

Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics SB RAS Russian Federation · Irkutsk

Vitaliy Khakhinov

Academic degree: candidate of physical and mathematical sciences

Institute of Solar Terrestrial Physics SB RAS Russian Federation · Irkutsk

Valentin Lebedev

Academic degree: candidate of physical and mathematical sciences

Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics SB RAS Russian Federation · Irkutsk

ORCID

ABSTRACT

The FSUE Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash), Rocket and Space Corporation “Energia”, and Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (ISTP SB RAS) jointly conducted the active space experiment “Radar-Progress” in 2007–2015. During this experiment, we used the Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Ra-dar to study space-time characteristics of ionospheric disturbances generated by exhaust products of “Pro-gress” cargo spacecraft engines. As the basic effect dur-ing exhaust product injection we consider the formation of new centers for recombination of ambient iono-spheric ions O+ on molecules of water and carbon diox-ide. This produces an ionization “hole” in the region of injection. In nighttime conditions when the majority of experiments were performed, this hole was filled by hydrogen ions from the plasmasphere, thus the ion composition in the vicinity of the hole and incoherent scatter spectra were changed. For successful obser-vation of the ionization hole dynamics, the critical fac-tors are the degree of radar antenna diagram filling by exhaust products and the velocity of the thermospheric neutral wind, which makes exhaust gases move from the antenna diagram. These two factors lead to poor repeatability of successful experiments. Successful experiments recorded a decrease in electron density up to 35 % in the hole that existed for 30 min. The lifetime of the region with high concentration of H+ ions can be as long as one hour.

KEYWORDS

ionosphere, electron density, active space experiments, exhaust product injection into ionospheric plasma

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Editor-in-Chief

Geliy Zherebtsov

solater@iszf.irk.ru

Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Aleksandr Stepanov

stepanov@gaoran.ru

Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Alexander Potapov

potapov@iszf.irk.ru

Executive Secretary of Editorial Board

Natalia Polyushkina

npol@iszf.irk.ru

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GOST

Shpynev B. G., Alsatkin S. S., Khakhinov V. V., Lebedev V. P. Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data // Solar-Terrestrial Physics. 2017. no. 1. pp. 114-127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104. (Date of access 13.11.2026).

MLA

Boris Shpynev, Alsatkin S. S., Khakhinov V. V., Lebedev V. P.. "Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data." Solar-Terrestrial Physics 3.1 (2017): 114-127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104.

APA

Shpynev B. G., Alsatkin S. S., Khakhinov V. V., Lebedev V. P. (2017). Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data. Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 3(1), 114-127. https://doi.org/10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104

Chicago

Boris Shpynev, Alsatkin S. S., Khakhinov V. V., Lebedev V. P.. "Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data." Solar-Terrestrial Physics 3, no. 1 (2017): 114-127. https://doi.org/10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104.

WIKI

{{cite journal | author = Shpynev B. G., Alsatkin S. S., Khakhinov V. V., Lebedev V. P. | title = Investigating the ionosphere response to exhaust products of “Progress” cargo spacecraft engines on the basis of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar data | journal = Solar-Terrestrial Physics | year = 2017 | volume = 3 | issue = 1 | pages = 114-127 | doi = 10.12737/article_58f9722a233f33.55738104 }}

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