Some geographic and geophysical aspects of electron content measurements from satellite radio beacon transmissions

Abstract

Geographic distribution of the ionospheric electron content has been studied from the Faraday rotation of satellite radio transmissions recorded at several stations in the Indian zone. The effect of large scale ionospheric irregularities on the Faraday rotation rate and rotation angle has been demonstrated. The integrated electron production rate has been obtained as a function of solar activity from the rate of change of electron content around sunrise for the period October (1964)–September (1968) (the rising half of the present solar cycle) and compared with other estimates, both theoretical and experimental. There are days of unusually high electron content apparently unconnected with any observed geophysical event; these days also show high 30 MHz cosmic radio noise absorption and the two are linearly related.