Coupling of Geomagnetic & Solar Controls in the F2 Region of the Ionosphere

Abstract

The normalized diurnal mean deviation (δ<i>_n</i>) of monthly median hourly value of F2-region critical frequency has been shown to depend on latitude. The analysis explicitly decomposes δ<i>_n</i> into geo-magnetically and geographically controlled components and shows that the contribution of the geographic control is approximately two and a half time that of the geomagnetic, control The magnitude, however, is not so important as the fact that a realistic approach to the interpretation of latitude control must take into consideration the coupling of geographic and geomagnetic controls, This is a departure from the approaches of previous workers in this' field who considered the problem exclusively from the point of view of either geomagnetic or geographic control.