Prerequisites for the Modification of the Block for Calculating the Electric Potential in the Ionosphere in the Model of the Upper Atmosphere

The results of comparing the accuracy and speed of two numerical algorithms for calculating the electric potential in the Earth’s ionosphere are presented. Several test problems for which exact analytical solutions are available are considered. It is shown that both approaches can be used to calculate the electric potential in models of the upper atmosphere, including in the regions of the equatorial electric jet. The combined use of the finite element method and the Fedorenko multigrid method with a preliminary transition to the problem for special potentials leads to a much more accurate and faster solution of the two-dimensional electrical conductivity equation in the ionosphere than the method used earlier in the block for calculating the electric potential of the global self-consistent model of the thermosphere–ionosphere–protonosphere.