Dependence of E-sporadic layer response on solar and geomagnetic activity variations from its ion composition

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to consider an influence of solar and geomagnetic activity level variations on frequency and stochastic parameters of mid-latitude ionosphere sporadic-E layer. Critical frequency of sporadic-E layer, foEs, relative excess of sporadic ionization over monthly median values, foEs - foEm/foEm, and probability of Es layer appearance, PEs, are considered. It has been found that sporadic-E layer parameters response to solar and geomagnetic activity level variations can be both positive (foEs and PEs values are increase) and negative (foEs and PEs values are decrease). In particular, sporadic-E layers response to solar and geomagnetic activity variations are different depending upon layer intensity. It is suggested that revealed differences may be associated with dissimilarity of the layers ion composition (high-intensive layers are composed from metallic ions and low intensive composed from molecular ions).© 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.