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A Theoretical Study Concerning The Solar Cycle Dependence Of The Nightside Ionosphere Of Venus, Zoltan Dobe, Andrew F. Nagy, Jane L. Fox

Physics Faculty Publications

We modeled the chemical and physical processes taking place in the nightside ionosphere of Venus by solving the one dimensional coupled continuity and momentum equations for 12 ion species [CO₂⁺, O₂⁺, O⁺, H⁺, NO⁺, CO⁺, N₂⁺, N⁺, He⁺, C⁺, O⁺ (²D) and O⁺ (²P)]. We investigated the relative importance of the two major processes responsible for maintaining the nightside plasma densities: atomic ion transport from the dayside and impact ionization due to energetic electron precipitation. …