A Model for the Sounding Rocket Measurement on an Ionospheric E-F Valley at the Hainan Low Latitude Station

To understand the physics of an ionospheric E-F valley, a new overlapping three- Chapman-layer model is developed to interpret the sounding rocket measurement in the morn- ing (sunrise) on May 7, 2011 at the Hainan low latitude ionospheric observation station (19.5 ^o N, 109.1 ^o E). From our model, the valley width, depth and height are 43.0 km, 62.9% and 121.0 km, re- spectively. From the sounding rocket observation, the valley width, depth and height are 42.2 km, 47.0% and 123.5 km, respectively. The model results are well consistent with the sounding rocket observation. The observed E-F valley at Hainan station is very wide and deep, and rapid devel- opment of the photochemical process in the ionosphere should be the underlying reason.