Electron Transport, Chemistry and Optical Emissions in the Auroral E-Layer.
Abstract
This report discusses a study related to ionospheric content and optical emissions in the auroral E-layer. The electron transport description was provided by a model previously developed by the author. The applied chemistry model, which is time dependent and includes several ion and neutral species, was developed during this study. Results for several sets of initial conditions are presented. These results include ion production rates, ion densities, and column emission rates for selected UV features. For initial conditions, two model atmospheres and incident electron fluxes from two experiments and for a Maxwellian expression are considered. Calculated ion densities and emission rates are compared with available measurements from one of these experiments and show reasonable agreement. Maxwellian distributions are considered for characteristic energies of .5, 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0 keV. Altitude profiles of the important individual ion densities and vertically viewing column emission rates of various important UV features are presented for each of these distributions. In addition to the above described results, a large quantity of atomic and molecular data collected during this program is given. In the Appendix, the problem of ion transport is discussed with an estimate of its effect on the calculated ion densities. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA102345
Entities
People
- D. J. Strickland