Communications in Theoretical Physics

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A Physical Numerical Ionospheric Model and Its Simulation Results

ZHANG Man-Lian,1 Radicella Sandro M.,2 and SHANG She-Ping1   


  1. 1 Laboratory for Space Weather, Center for Space Science and Applied Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 8701, Beijing 100080, China
    2 The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, 34014 Trieste, Italy
  • Received: 2003-09-01 Revised: 1900-01-01 Published: 2004-05-15

Abstract: This paper describes the construction of a one-dimensional time-dependent theoretical ionospheric model, which is based on numerical solution of continuity and momentum equations for O+, O2+, N2+, and NO+. The model is designed to have an option to incorporate the observational ionospheric characteristic parameters into the numerical model to indirectly determine the upper boundary condition when solving the transport equations of O+. A preliminary simulation result of the model when used to simulate the ionosphere during April 18 ~ May 10, 1998, which includes both quiet and disturbed periods, showed that the model constructed is able to reproduce the observational results reasonably well both for quiet and disturbed periods.

Key words: ionosphere, ionospheric physical model, numerical simulation

PACS numbers: 

  • 94.20.-y