An interpretation of ion composition diurnal variation deduced from EISCAT observations

• Main Authors: Mikhailov, A. V., Kofman, W.
• Other Authors: Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation 142090, Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble (LPG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2001
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00329160; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00329160/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00329160/file/angeo-19-351-2001.pdf

International audience Physical interpretation is made of the O + /Ne diurnal variations in summer, revealed by Litvine et al. (1998) from the EISCAT observations. It is shown that the observed anti-correlation between the Z 50 parameter, corresponding to the transition region between 50% of molecular and atomic ions, and the width D z of the transition, defined as the altitude width between 10% and 90% of the O + /Ne ratio, can be reproduced in model calculations and the result of different recombination laws (quadratic in the lower and linear in the upper ionosphere) as well as diurnal variations in the photo-ionization rates.