Interaction of internal gravity waves with the ionospheric F2-layer

Abstract

A gravity wave produces perturbations in density, velocity and temperature in the neutral atmosphere. These perturbations in turn modify the ionospheric processes involving photoproduction, chemistry and transport. The effect of modification of these processes on the F2 ionosphere can be examined by solving numerically the equation of continuity. Extensive computations have shown that the ionospheric response at F2-region heights is quite sensitive to ion drag and diffusion effects. To neglect diffusion may introduce a substantial height-dependent phase shift. It has been found that a gravity wave of perturbation magnitude may induce an ionization change which is not of perturbation magnitude. Under such circumstances, the perturbation analysis cannot be expected to obtain ionospheric response with any desired accuracy for all cases. The phase of atmospheric parameters relative to the ionization perturbation is found to vary continuously with height.