The Thermal Balance in the Thermosphere at Middle Latitudes
Abstract
A factor which complicates the heat balance in the atmosphere is related to the contribution to the energy input made by solar particle radiation, which is very sensitive to solar conditions. However, the particle heat input is probably normally unimportant below the exosphere. An analysis of the thermal balance associated with the solar ultraviolet radiation is discussed. Attention is given to the electron and ion temperature, the flux and energy distribution of the photoelectrons, the collision cross sections required, the primary source function q(E), the calculated and observed photoelectron energy distribution, the effect of transport on the photoelectron distribution, processes determining the electron and ion temperatures, the rates of electron energy loss processes, the electron and ion temperature in the F region, and the radiation budget and the neutral gas temperature.
- Publication:
-
Applied Atomic Collision Physics, Volume 1: Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry
- Pub Date:
- 1982
- Bibcode:
- 1982aacp....1...77M
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Heat Budget;
- Midlatitude Atmosphere;
- Solar Terrestrial Interactions;
- Thermosphere;
- Atmospheric Chemistry;
- Atmospheric Physics;
- Atomic Collisions;
- Electron Energy;
- F Region;
- Ion Temperature;
- Geophysics