Geomagnetic Pulsations and the Earth's Outer Atmosphere

Abstract

Hydromagnetic oscillations of the Earth's ionized outer atmosphere along the geomagnetic lines of force are considered. The observational evidence of world-wide geomagnetic pulsations yields the distribution of ionic density in the outer atmosphere extending beyond the ionosphere. It is found that the ion density is about 103 per cm3 at a distance of a few earth radii decreasing exponentially to a value of the order of 5 per cm3 in interplanetary space. A theoretical consideration of the temperature of the outer ionosphere is also discussed.