Rocket and balloon investigations of middle atmospheric ionization during IMAP and IMAP-C

Ion densities, conductivities, and mobilities in the middle atmosphere have been evaluated following the Gerdien condenser technique from the data collected during two rocket experiments carried out at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station and several balloon experiments at the TIFR Balloon Facility, Hyderabad. The ion density profiles fail to show any significant valley around 82-85 km level, which is normally seen in electron density profiles. The positive ion conductivity varies from 1.2 x 10 to the -13th to 4.7 x 10 to the -14th ohm/m and the total positive ion density varies from 2000 to 540/cu cm. The corresponding values for the negative ions are 8.1 x 10 to the -14th to 3.7 x 10 to the -13th ohm/m and 13 to 380/cu cm.