The dynamics of head-on collision of two magnetosonic solitary waves in ionosphere plasma of the Earth is investigated. A geomagnetic field model standing for the relation between a magnetic field and latitude is used to study nonlinear magnetosonic waves in the ionosphere of Earth. The linear and weakly nonlinear properties of magnetosonic waves are studied by the dispersion relation and the extended Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo (PLK) method, respectively. Two coupled damped Korteweg–de Vries equations (dKdV) are derived for oppositely propagating magnetosonic solitary waves. The explicit solitary wave solutions are obtained in the weak collision limit, and the trajectories and phase shifts of two magnetosonic solitary waves are derived, which show that collisional dynamics and their phase shifts are dependent on the collision caused by neutral particles and the properties of the ionosphere. This study is applied to investigate the two-counterpropagating magnetosonic solitary waves located in the F2-region of the Earth's ionosphere at low latitude. This study should be beneficial to understand the interaction dynamics of the head-on nonlinear magnetosonic waves located in the F2 layer of the ionosphere when collision effects caused by neutral particles and geomagnetic field distribution are considered.

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