Module Identifier | PH39010 | ||
Module Title | IONISED ATMOSPHERE | ||
Academic Year | 2002/2003 | ||
Co-ordinator | Dr Eleri Pryse | ||
Semester | Semester 2 | ||
Other staff | Professor Shadia R Habbal | ||
Pre-Requisite | PH29010 , Core Physics Modules at Level 2 | ||
Course delivery | Seminars / Tutorials | 2 seminars/tutorials | |
Lecture | 20 lectures | ||
Assessment | Semester Exam | 2 Hours end of semester examination for BSc students | 100% |
Semester Exam | 3 Hours end of semester examination for MPhys students | 100% |
The morphology of the ionosphere is described, the production and loss processes of ionisation under normal conditions are explained, and the effects of neutral winds and electric fields are considered. An introduction is given to the influence of the ionosphere on radiowaves. The high latitude ionosphere is decribed in terms of magnetosphere processes mapped down the geomagnetic field.
Radiowave Propagation: Plasma frequency, gyrofrequency, Debye length, phase velocity, group velocity, refractive index. Applications of the Appleton-Hartree equation, ionosondes, trans-ionospheric propagation.
The High-Latitude Ionosphere and the Magnetosphere: the high-latitude ionosphere as a map of processes in the magnetosphere; the precipitation of energetic particles and the aurora; magnetospheric electric fields and the eastward and westward electrojets; megnetic perturbations in the auroral zone.