Advances in theoretical modeling of rapidly expanding atmospheres in the past few years made it possible to determine the stellar parameters of the Wolf-Rayet stars. This progress is mainly due to the improvement of the models with respect to their spatial extension: The new generation of models treat spherically-symmetric expanding atmospheres, i.e. the models are one-dimensional. Older models describe the wind by only one representative point. The older models are in fact ‘core-halo’ approximations. They have been introduced by Castor and van Blerkom (1970), and were extensively employed in the past (cf. e.g. Willis and Wilson, 1978; Smith and Willis, 1982). First results from new one-dimensional model calculations are published by Hillier (1984), Schmutz (1984), Hamann (1985), Hillier (1986), and Schmutz et al. (1987a); more detailed results are presented by Schmutz and Hamann (1986), Hamann and Schmutz (1987), Hillier (1987a,b), Wessolowski et al. (1987), Hillier (1987c) and Hamann et al. (1987). These results demonstrate that the step from zero- to one-dimensional calculations is essential. The important point is that the complicated interrelation between NLTE-level populations and radiation field is treated adequately (Schmutz and Hamann, 1986; Hillier, 1987). For this interrelation it is crucial to model consistently not only the line-formation region, but also the layers where the continuum is emitted. In fact, it is the core-halo approximation that causes the one-point models to fail in certain aspects.
MESOSPHERIC ELECTRIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS WITH A PARTIAL REFLECTION RADAR