The Bakerian lecture —Regularities and irregularities in the ionosphere—I

Our knowledge concerning the state of the atmosphere lying above about 80 km. in height has been derived from experiments on radio wave reflexion as well as from studies of terrestrial magnetism and of the aurora. The information derived from radio experiments is, fortunately, in the nature of a supplement to, rather than a duplicate of, information derivable in other ways. As one of the best examples in this connexion may be mentioned the question of electrical conductivity. Here the magnetic studies of Schuster and Chapman yield an estimate of the total conductivity for currents travelling horizontally, whereas the radio measurements give the state of ionization at different levels from which the specific conductivity at those levels may be estimated. One of the most striking things about the ionosphere is the marked solar control. Speaking generally it may be said that the ionization increases and decreases as the sun rises and sets. Again, speaking generally, we may say that the main part of the ionization is caused by solar-violet light. The rays from the sun meet the outer layers of the atmosphere first and the short wave-length radiation is absorbed there, causing ionization. It thus comes about that the study of the ionosphere becomes the study of an interesting part of the sun's spectrum which cannot be detected at ground level. It also becomes the study of certain atomic processes such as photo-ionization, recombination of ions and attachment of electrons to neutral molecules such as cannot be investigated at very low pressure in the laboratory, because of the influence of the walls of the vessel confining the gas.