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On D ‐region Electron Heating by a Low‐Frequency Terrestrial Line Current With Ground Return
Author(s) -
Row R. V.,
Mentzoni M. H.
Publication year - 1972
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 - 10.1029/rs007i011p01061
Subject(s) - ionosphere , current (fluid) , dipole , physics , electron , line (geometry) , moment (physics) , daytime , electric field , electron temperature , computational physics , atmospheric sciences , geophysics , geometry , mathematics , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
A horizontal current‐carrying wire near the surface of the earth will maintain a tangential electric field in the ionosphere overhead. The questions of how large this field must be to produce a given local increase in electron temperature in the D region and the corresponding required current (dipole moment) in the wire are addressed here. To achieve a 20 K modulation (about 10% of ambient temperature) of the local electron temperature at an altitude of 70 km under daytime conditions would require an rms current of 2730 amp at 45 Hz over a length of at least 300 km where the ground conductivity is 1.4×10 −4 mho m −1 . A parallel array of 23 wires spaced at 10‐km intervals will produce the same temperature modulation with only 139 amp in each wire.