CALCULATED DAILY VARIATIONS OF O+ AND H+ AT MID-LATITUDES .2. SUNSPOT MAXIMUM RESULTS

The time-dependent H+ and O+ continuity and momentum equations are solved for the magnetic flux tube with L = 3.2 from the lower F2-region to the equator. The numerical method is a modification of the technique developed by Bailey (1978). The atmospheric conditions are appropriate to sunspot maximum. Values for NmF2, H+ concentration, O+ flux, O+ H+ transition height and H+ content in the magnetic flux tube, calculated over several days of integration starting with a low H+ content, are in reasonable accord with experiment. Further conclusions, still likely to be valid when improved values of plasma temperature at high altitudes and of thermospheric neutral wind velocity are available, are that: H+ is supplied to the protonosphere from the ionosphere during both day and night-the daily average flux is about 7.5 × 107 cm-32 s-1 and gives rise to a net loss of neutral atomic hydrogen; the profile of H+ concentration with altitude at night often has a double peak, as in daytime profiles; downward fluxes of O+ in the topside ionosphere following sunset occur at the same time as upward H+ fluxes. © 1979.