Modeling of stratospheric ions: A first attempt

An algebraic model of stratospheric ion species is presented: AX = B, where X is a column vector representing the concentration values Xj (j = 1 to N, where N is the number of species); B with elements bi (i = 1 to N) represents the external sources of ionization; and A is an N X N square matrix whose elements aij take into account all chemical processes. Factors which represent the inverse of the time constant associated with the reaction from ion j to ion i are a function of the chemical rate constants and of neutral species concentration. For positive charges the model considers 25 different species and 44 chemical reactions; for negative charges 38 species and 134 reactions.