Rocket observations of electron temperature in the E-region

Electron and ion temperatures in the ionosphere

“…Thus the cylindrical probe, on account of its small diameter, should function to much lower altitudes than the nose-tip probe. Yet in the observations discussed by Smith et al (1968) which were obtained by both these methods, no such difference is apparent. Another possible source of error may be neglect of the geomagnetic field if for some reason its effect were more pronouncqd in the E-region.…”

“…Smith et al (1968), however, noted a tendency for higher .electron temperatures tp be measured on the ascent than on the descent of the rodket trajectory even in the E-region. He used a nose-tip probe and presumably larger effects would be expected than with the other geometries usually employed.…”

“…Moreover, Smith et al (1965Smith et al ( , 1968 made observations in two eclipses (1963 July 20 and1966 Nov. 12) and found no evidence for a fall during the eclipse.…”

“…There is often a pronounced scatter of the measurements. Smith et al (1968) have summarised the results of 29 rocket flights at 145 km. They conclude that T e shows a general trend towards Tg at the minimum of the solar cycle and that it shows considerable variability at any site with a time scale greater than several hours, but less than several days.…”

DC Langmuir Probe for Measurement of Space Plasma: A Brief Review

“…Most of the measurements report daytime T e , which is higher than the model neutral temperature T n (Smith et al 1968;Schutz & Smith 1976;Rohde et al 1993). During the daytime, the ionospheric electron density is about 10 5 els/cm 3 at the altitude of 95-120 km, while the density of neutral particles is 10 12 particles/ cm 3 .…”