METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE ATOMIC MASS OF METAL IONS IN THE SPORADIC LAYER E (ES) Russian patent published in 2018 - IPC H01J49/26 G01T1/29 

FIELD: measurement technology.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to methods for determining the composition and concentration of positive ions in the Earth's ionosphere. Method for determining the atomic mass of metal ions in a sporadic layer E (E_s) includes formation of artificial periodic inhomogeneities of ionospheric plasma, radiation in the ionosphere of probing pulses at the stage of disappearance (relaxation) of artificial periodic inhomogeneities, reception of a signal back scattered by artificial periodic inhomogeneities of the ionospheric plasma, measurement of amplitude and determination of the relaxation time of the backscattered signal as a function of the height h. By decreasing the amplitude of the backscattered signal by e times, at each height, the relaxation time of the inhomogeneities τ(h), which in absence of a sporadic layer E (E_s) is due to ambipolar diffusion with a characteristic time τ_d(h), and for existence of a sporadic layer E (E_s) – diffusion with a characteristic time τ_Es(h), and with respect to times τ_Es(h) and τ_d(h) determine the atomic mass or type of metallic ions in the sporadic E (E_s).

EFFECT: possibility of remote radiophysical determining of the atomic mass of positive metal ions prevailing in the sporadic layer E (E_s) of the ionosphere, id est determination of the type of ions that form this layer, with a significant reduction in the cost of conducting measurements compared with other methods and high accuracy in determining the height of the ion layer.

1 cl, 3 dwg