  We present a method for exploring analogue Hawking radiation using a laser
pulse propagating through an underdense plasma. The propagating fields in the
Hawking effect are local perturbations of the plasma density and laser
amplitude. We derive the dependence of the resulting Hawking temperature on the
dimensionless amplitude of the laser and the behaviour of the spot area of the
laser at the analogue event horizon. We demonstrate one possible way of
obtaining the analogue Hawking temperature in terms of the plasma wavelength,
and our analysis shows that for a high intensity near-IR laser the analogue
Hawking temperature is less than approximately 25K for a reasonable choice of
parameters.
