Most ionospheric models cannot sufficiently reproduce the observed electron density profiles in the E‐region ionosphere, since they usually underestimate electron densities and do not match the profile shape. Mitigation of these issues is often addressed by increasing the solar soft X‐ray flux which is ineffective for resolving data‐model discrepancies. We show that low‐resolution cross sections and solar spectral irradiances fail to preserve structure within the data, which considerably impacts radiative processes in the E‐region, and are largely responsible for the discrepancies between observations and simulations. To resolve data‐model inconsistencies, we utilize new high‐resolution (0.001 nm) atomic oxygen (O) and molecular nitrogen (N2) cross sections and solar spectral irradiances, which contain autoionization and narrow rotational lines that allow solar photons to reach lower altitudes and increase the photoelectron flux. This work improves upon Meier et al. (2007,
Factors related to two sources of energy input to the ionosphere, the Poynting flux associated with both quasistatic fields (
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10374834
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 47
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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