Methods of Measuring Ionospheric Absorption and Other D-Region Parameters

Abstract

The essential elements of the theory of absorption of electromagnetic waves in the ionosphere, including both deviative and nondeviative absorption, have been presented in Section 2.2.2, and in considerable detail by Davies (1969,1990). The absorption coefficient (per unit length) for EM waves propagating in an unmagnetized plasma is

$$ k = \left[ {\frac{{e^2 }}{2}\varepsilon _0 mc\mu \cdot\frac{{Nv}}{{\omega ^2 + v^2 }}} \right]. $$

([Eq. (2.46)])

For a QL wave, nondeviative absorption, and μ₂ ” X₂, Eq. (2.53) describes the absorption coefficient in a magnetoionic medium,

$$ k = \left[ {\frac{{e^2 }}{{2\varepsilon _0 mc}}\cdot\frac{{Nv}}{{\left( {\omega \pm \omega _L } \right)^2 + v^2 }}} \right], $$

([Eq. (2.53)])

where all the quantities are defined in Section 2.2.2.