Some Results of Measurement of Mass Spectra of Positive Ions on the Third Soviet Artificial Earth Satellite

Altitude Variations of Positive Ion Concetrations According to Mass Spectrometer Data From the Third Sputnik

“…For higher altitudes the data for different days vary considerably, a fact which obviously implies a relative instability of the 0 + ion concentration from da}^ to day with altitude. 2 This conclusion is not unexpected (see Ref. 3).…”

“…The correspondence between the altitude variations of the concentration of positive ions N + , 0 + , N 2 + , NO + , and 0 2 + and the variations of the electron concentration is an indication that light ions whose mass numbers are beyond the range of the device (hydrogen H + , H 2 + , and helium He + ions), do not exist in considerable quantities, and that the ionosphere consists of oxygen-nitrogen up to an altitude of 900 km. If light ions are present, it can be expected that their relative concentrations increase with altitude in a manner analogous to atomic nitrogen atoms in relation to atomic oxygen atoms and atomic oxygen ions in relation to even heavier ions (1,2). Such an increase of the relative concentrations of H + , H 2 + , and He + ions would give rise to a difference between the electron and ion concentrations.…”

“…Measurements of the mass spectrum of ions in the range from six to 48 amu show that in addition to the atomic oxygen ion, which predominates at altitudes above 225 km, the ionosphere also contains molecular ions 0 2 + , NO + , N 2 + , as well as ions of atomic nitrogen N + (1,2). Above 300 km, however, the total concentration of all these ions amounts to less than 10% of the concentration of atomic oxygen ions.…”

“…2 The orientation of the mass spectrometer tube in relation to the velocity vector was determined from data of magnetometer measurements (4). Peak intensities of atomic oxygen obtained for different angles 6 were reduced to 6 = 0 deg.…”

“…The magnitude of the potential was evaluated on the basis of the shift of mass peaks in the spectra (2), and its variations could be determined from the variations of the relative intensities of complex (harmonic) peaks observed in the spectra. It is known, from the theory of radio-frequency mass spectrometers, that the relative intensity of harmonic peaks is strongly dependent on the level of the retarding potential and, consequently, appears to be a sensitive indicator of the constancy of the magnitude of the effective retarding potential.…”