Relaxation Time of Artificial Periodic Irregularities of the Ionospheric Plasma and Diffusion in the Inhomogeneous Atmosphere

We consider diffusion of the ionospheric-plasma irregularities as applied to the problem of experimental determination of the lower-ionosphere parameters by artificial periodic irregularities of the electron number density. A rigorous solution to the problem of diffusion of one-dimensional plasma irregularities in a weakly ionized medium, whose diffusion coefficient exponentially decreases with the altitude, is obtained. The Green’s function for this problem is found. Three parameters are taken into account in the solution, namely, the size of the region occupied by the irregularities, the size of the irregularities, and a typical spatial scale of the e-fold decrease in the diffusion coefficient. Theoretical relaxation times of the irregularities as functions of these parameters are analyzed. Calculated relaxation times are compared with the times measured in the observation of the artificial periodic irregularities created by the SURA facility. Calculated relaxation times of these irregularities are in good agreement with the observed values.