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Mixtures of lons in the Wind‐Shear Theory of Sporadic E
Author(s) -
Whitehead J. D.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1002/rds196612198
Subject(s) - ion , shear (geology) , atomic physics , electron , wind shear , electron density , recombination , physics , computational physics , atmospheric sciences , materials science , chemistry , meteorology , wind speed , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , composite material , gene
The wind‐shear theory of sporadic E predicts that when only one ion species is present, and the peak electron density is a factor R times the ambient, the minimum electron density is 1/R of the ambient. With two species present, the minimum electron density is greater than this and approaches the ambient when the ratio of recombination coefficients is large and the more rapidly recombining ion predominates in the ambient ionsphere. The peak density depends only on the recombination coefficient of the slowly recombining ion and the gradient in the vertical drift motion. The problem of nighttime sporadic E is considered, but no satisfactory solution is offered.