Abstract
Abstract Heating rate of thermal electrons by superthermal electrons in ionospheric F-layer at altitudes of 150–350 km was studied over a wide range of zenith angles 45–90 degrees. As a result, a simple and universal formula for calculating the heating rate was obtained. The generalized Hoegy theory was used to obtain the formula. Within the framework of the Hoegy theory, the heating rate is determined by superthermal electrons flux and energy loss function. The energy dependence of the superthermal electron flux was obtained using the bi-exponential function. The kinetic approach was used to receive an analytical expression for the energy loss function. It has been shown that the obtained expression in good agreement with the widely used Swartz approximation. The applicability limits of the obtained expression for energy losses are discussed. It was demonstrated that the heating rate calculations using the formula obtained in the work has a good agreement with the experiments.