Modeling of high frequency radio wave absorption on oblique soundings during a solar X-ray flare

High frequency radio wave absorption induced by Solar Ultra-Violet (UV) and X-ray flux is investigated. The influence of the solar flare observed on 11 April 2013 on the structure of oblique sounding ionograms in the Arctic region of Russia is considered. An adjustable model of the ionosphere developed for high frequency (HF) propagation problems was employed for this purpose. The simulation algorithm has been designed to accept a large variety of ionospheric conditions. On the basis of the SWPC D-region Absorption model the absorption effects in the ionosphere at sub-auroral latitudes of the Earth were calculated. This approach does not require knowledge of the electron density and electron collision frequency profiles of the D-region ionosphere. The oblique ionograms simulated with the absorption effect and ionograms provided by Russian network of ionospheric observations deployed in Arctic region exhibit quite a good resemblance.