Effects of Vertical Diffusion of Electrons near the Magnetic Equator

Abstract

IF electrodynamic movements are neglected, the continuity equation for the electron density N at a fixed height h in region F of the ionosphere may be written : where Q is the rate of production of electrons, βN is the effective rate of loss due to recombination processes and D is the contribution due to diffusion. If diffusion is considered to be predominantly vertical, the expression of Ferraro¹ reduces to the following form : where b is a constant, l is the dip angle of the Earth's magnetic field, n is the density of neutral particles, and H is the scale height, here assumed constant. It is also assumed that H is the same for the neutral atmosphere as for the ions : if this is not true, the conclusions reached here will remain essentially unchanged, but the values of the constants will be modified.