The ionosphere of the Earth has been actively studied since the 1920's, following the discovery of ground radio-sounding. By means of this method results were ohtained by an international network of ionospheric stations, in particular, by the successful implementation of a number of rigorously planned international scientific research programs,'" enabling the collection of extensive experimental material on some of the most important parameters of the ionosphere - the critical freLjuencies of E-, Fl- and F2-layers. Comprehensive analyses of these observation data give a fairly complete...