A NEW ANALYSIS OF ECLIPSE EFFECTS IN EQUATORIAL F-REGION

F-region electron density measurements obtained during the solar eclipse of 2 October, 1959 at Ibadan and Maiduguri are re-examined. A method has been developed to analyse the data in which the transport term in the electron density continuity equation is retained, and its effect is found to be important. The variations of electron density at the two stations can be explained in terms of essentially the same ionospheric model in which there is downward vertical drift with velocities in the range 5-50 msec-1 at the time of the eclipse, together with a vertical velocity gradient which decreases upwards. The values of the photoionization rate q and the linear loss coefficient β obtained from this analysis are consistent with those of other workers, and the scale heights of the atmospheric constituents predicted from the height variations of q and β are shown to imply reasonable exospheric temperatures. © 1969.