Ionospheric Research In Support Of Atmospheric Ionozation Effects

For the specific goal to control or predict man-made ionization effects the Defense Department has stimulated research in some areas and particularly in ionospheric physics. The results are reviewed with the implication that most of them are significant only within the larger pool of knowledge being produced by basic research. The review covers recent results gained by means of rockets and satellites on various atmospheric parameters and on the various particle inputs. Further, it reports on conjugate phenomena, on geographical features of particle influx and of electric fields and on progress in radio propagation measuring techniques. Finally, it reviews the observed effects on the ionosphere during the coordinated 12 November 1966 solar eclipse expedition. (Author).

A modern treatment of the physics and phenomena of the ionosphere, beginning with the basics of radio propagation and the use of radio techniques in ionospheric studies. Ample cross-referencing, chapter summaries and reference lists make this book an invaluable aid for graduate students, ionospheric physicists and radio engineers.

The physical properties of the ionized layer in the Earth's upper atmosphere enable us to use it to support an increasing range of communications applications. This book presents a modern treatment of the physics and phenomena of the high latitude upper atmosphere and the morphology of radio propagation in the auroral and polar regions. Chapters cover the basics of radio propagation and the use of radio techniques in ionospheric studies. Many investigations of high latitude radio propagation have previously only been published in Conference Proceedings and organizational reports. This book inc.

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances resulting from an interaction of the Solar Flare radiation with the constituents of the upper atmosphere constitute one of the three major aspects of ground level monitoring of solar flares -the other two being optical observations of flares, and the observations of solar bursts in radio wavelengths. SIDs, therefore, form a major part of flare monitoring programme in many observatories. Unlike the other two, however, the ionospheric effects of flares provide one major additional source of interest - the reaction of the ionospheric plasma to an impulsive ionization. The high atmosphere provides a low pressure laboratory without walls in which a host of reactions occur between electrons, ions and neutral particles. The resulting products and their distributions may bear no resemblance to those of the primary neutral constituents or their direct ionization products. The variations with the time of the day, with season and with solar activity that form the bulk of the ionospheric measurements are too slow to allow any insight into the nature of these ionospheric reactions whose lifetimes are often very short. The relaxation time of the ionospheric ionization is only a few minutes or fraction of a minute in the lower ionosphere and in the E-region and is about 30 min to an hour at 300 km. The flares provide a sudden short impulse comparable to these time scales.