THE IONIC STRUCTURE OF THE IONOSPHERE,

This work is an aeronomic study of the behavior of positive ions in the 100-300 km region of the ionosphere. The production of ions due to solar radiation and the recombination processes for ions are analyzed in terms of a basic atmospheric model. The ion-neutral atom molecule reactions are determined in terms of the vertical distribution of the principal neutral constituents. Ionic production is treated as a function of the solar zenith angle. Sunrise or sunset production is studied in terms of functions which take the sphericity of the earth into account. Practical functions are derived for atmospheric models having gradients of scale height, i.e., models which include a variation of temperature and mean molecular mass with height. A photoequilibrium daytime solution of the vertical distribution of ions is constructed which is shown to conform with the observational data. The nighttime ionosphere is investigated by means of certain decay schemes. The rapid change of the electron density at dawn is explained as the natural consequence of the effect of production. Author