Characteristics of ionospheric heating disturbances caused by ground-based VLF waves observed by ZHANGHENG-1 satellite

Ionospheric disturbances are mainly caused by solar and earth surface activities. The research on the characteristics of ionospheric plasma disturbance caused by the known ground-based very low frequency (VLF) transmitters is of great significance for analyzing the changes of ionospheric environment. This paper mainly introduces the main parameters and data output of the plasma analyzer package which is one of the in-situ detection scientific payloads onboard ZHANGHENG-1 satellite, and the phenomenon and characteristics of ionospheric heating disturbances caused by the NWC high-power VLF artificial source are summarized and analyzed. The observation results show that the ionospheric heating disturbances occurring in the area of about 50 km to 500 km north of the NWC station are simultaneously recorded by oxygen ion density, ion temperature, and ion drift velocities on the nightside. The disturbance area covers about 300 km to 400 km. According to the power spectrum results of the electric field data in the same orbits, the main frequency of electric field enhancement is same as the transmitting frequency of the NWC station. The observation results verify that the plasma analyzer package onboard ZHANGHENG-1 satellite have ability to detect the ionospheric disturbances. The ground-based high-power VLF waves can cause a significant impact on the ionospheric plasma environment, and the disturbance regions often shift toward to the magnetic equator relative to the positions of the transmitters.