However, since Zinn’s calculations are preliminary it will be necessary to perform additional calculations utilizing more appropriate models (two- or three-dimensional simulations that include more realistic treatments of the phenomena involved) before these predictions can be stated with any reasonable degree of confidence. Our present state of knowledge is not sufficient to state with any degree of certainty what the consequences of such ionspheric depletions will be. Figure 3.3 does, however, indicate some possible consequences that must be examined as part of phase 2 of the program. These include alteration of particle-wave interactions, electrical conductivity, drag forces on satellites, response of the ionospheric-magnetospheric system to magnetic storms, location and behavior of the auroral region of the ionosphere, airglow intensity, electron temperature profile, and electromagnetic wave propagation propert ies. Any influence that the thruster effluents released in the upper atmosphere might have on the lower atmosphere would either result from the direct migration of the effluents to the lower atmosphere or through triggering and/or coupling mechanisms that connect causal phenomena in the upper atmosphere with effects in the lower atmosphere. There is, at the present time, considerable interest in such cause and effect relations between the upper and lower atmosphere because of renewed interest in the so-called sun-weather effect. Such an effect presumably involves variations in the solar wind which in turn influence the behavior of the earth’s magnetosphere and ultimately the troposphere weather through mechanisms as yet poorly understood. One mechanism for producing such an effect, suggested by Roberts and Olson (Ref. 3.10) involves intense fluxes of particles precipitated into the auroral zone during geomagnetically active periods; these fluxes may result in the formation of ions in the upper atmosphere that could subsequently serve as nuclei for the condensation of water, which would result in the formation of high altitude clouds. These clouds may then modify the earth’s radiation balance. Another mechanism, more recently proposed by Markson (Ref. 3.11), involves changes in electric potentials in the atmosphere above thunderstorms caused by changes in electrical conductivity in the upper atmosphere. The changes in conductivity are thought to be brought about by the solar activity that modulates galactic cosmic ionizing radiation capable of reaching altitudes
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