When a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere, a linear ionized region is formed at what region of the ionosphere?
Why Meteors burn up and ionize the air at roughly 85 to 120 km altitude, which is exactly the height of the E region. The friction of the meteoroid leaves a dense, cylindrical (linear) column of ionization along its path that can refract or reflect VHF signals for a fraction of a second up to a few seconds. That is why meteor scatter contacts on 6 meters and 2 meters behave like brief, intense sporadic-E style openings out to about 1200 miles.
Watch out The F1 and F2 regions sit much higher, around 150 to 400 km, well above where meteors ablate, and the D region (50 to 90 km) is the absorbing layer that mainly attenuates lower HF by day rather than forming meteor trails.
Meteor trails burn up around 100 km, the same height as sporadic E. Meteors = E region.