Ca. Reddy et al., ACCURACY OF O-O COLLISION CROSS-SECTION DEDUCED FROM IONOSPHERE-THERMOSPHERE OBSERVATIONS(), Geophysical research letters, 21(22), 1994, pp. 2429-2432
Aeronomic observations applied to the empirical derivation of the ion-
neutral collision cross-section-a basic parameter governing the mutual
interactions between the neutral and plasma components in the Earth's
upper atmosphere-have given values considerably larger than those der
ived from theory. The empirical scheme uses the plasma velocities obta
ined with the Incoherent Scatter Radar and the neutral winds obtained
with the Fabry-Perot Interferometer. It is shown here that such an ana
lysis overestimates the collision cross-section due to the effects of
errors in the observables. The effect may be sufficiently large to bri
ng about agreement with theory, and calls for a re-analysis of the aer
onomic data using methods which minimize the bias caused by measuremen
t errors.