The Longitudinal Structure Function $F_L$ at small x

We present a set of formulae to extract the longitudinal deep inelastic structure function $F_L$ from the transverse structure function $F_2$ and its derivative $dF_2/dlnQ^2$ at small $x$. Using $F_2$ HERA data we obtain $F_L$ in the range $10^{-4} \leq x \leq 10^{-2}$ at $Q^2=20$ GeV$^2$