This proposal is for studying the formation, evolution and electrodynamic consequences of ionospheric intermediate layers. These regions of enhanced ion concentration that appear in the bottomside of the nighttime F region can be formed by the action of gravity wave neutral wind fields. As part of a present graduate student project the non-ExB motion of the ionospheric plasma at altitudes below about 200 km has been successfully incorporated. This physics was added to the previous ionosphere model which assumed all the plasma on a flux tube was subject only to ExB drifts perpendicular to the magnetic field. As a result of this work it is possible to undertake an examination of the formation of intermediate layers that are thought to form as a result of the action of gravity wave neutral wind fields. In this proposal the ability of propagating neutral wind fields to produce perturbations in the ambient ionospheric profile and the role that non-reactive metallic ions might play in the appearance of these layers at lower altitudes will be examined.
