THE WAKE OF A LARGE BODY MOVING IN THE IONOSPHERE
Abstract
The memorandum investigates the steady-state perturbations of the ion and electron densities caused by a large-radius conducting disk moving through the ionosphere at a speed intermediate to the ion and electron thermal speeds. An approximation to the electron density in the region close behind the body is found by solving Poisson's equation, neglecting the ion density. For larger distances behind the body where the ion and electron densities are almost equal, an expression for the Fourier transform of the perturbed ion density is obtained, taking account of the ion thermal motion and scattering in the electric and magnetic fields, but neglecting collisions. The transform is inverted to obtain an approximate expression for the space dependence of the perturbation at large distances. Finally, the solutions for different body shapes and boundary conditions are discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0623330
Entities
People
- Phyllis Greifinger
Organizations
- RAND Corporation