SCATTERING OF RADIO WAVES BY AN IONIZED GAS IN THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM IN THE PRESENCE OF A UNIFORM MAGNETIC FIELD

Abstract

In an earlier paper (Fejer 1960) a theory was developed for the scattering of radio waves by the electron density fluctuations that exist in an ionized gas in thermal equilibrium. The theory treated only the extreme cases where the "characteristic scale" of the scattering irregularities is either very much larger or very much smaller than the Debye length. The presence of only one type of singly charged ion was considered and the ion and electron temperatures were assumed equal. The effects of an external magnetic field were not taken into account.These earlier limitations are removed in the present paper and the effects of an external magnetic field are taken into account.It is shown that the total power is independent of the magnetic field and an expression for the frequency spectrum of scattered power in the presence of a uniform magnetic field is obtained. Useful approximations to this expression are derived for various limiting cases of interest.It is concluded that the magnetic field need not be taken into account in the interpretation of past observations by Bowles (1958, 1959) and by Pineo, Kraft, and Briscoe (1960). In future experiments, however, particularly at great heights, the effect of the magnetic field could be considerable.