Measurements of low energy auroral ions

This paper summarizes ion meaurements in the energy range 0.1–30keV observed during the campaigns “Substorm Phenomena” and “Porcupine”. For a clear survey of the physical processes during extraordinary events, sometimes ion meaurements of higher energies are also taken into account. Generally, the pitch angle distributions were isotropic during all flights except some remarkable events. In general the ion and electron flux intensities correlated, but sometimes revealed a spectral anti-correlation.

Acceleration of the ions by an electrostatic field aligned parallel to the magnetic field could be identified accompanied by intense electron precipitation. On the other hand deceleration of the ions was observed in other field-aligned current sheets which are indicated by the electron and magnetic field measurements. Temporal successive monoenergetic ion variations pointed to energy dispersion and to the location of the source region at 9 R_E. Furthermore, ion fluxes higher than those of the electrons were measured at pitch angles parallel to the magnetic field. Each of the examples was observed during different flights. The integral down-going number and energy flux of the ions contributed to the total particle or energy influx between 65% and less than 7% and did not clearly characterize the geophysical launch conditions or auroral activities.     

Echo I: An experimental analysis of local effects and conjugate return echoes from an electron beam injected into the magnetosphere by a sounding rocket

On 13 August 1970, a sounding rocket carrying a high voltage electron accelerator and several electron detectors was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia. 16 msec long, 70 mA pulses were injected into the magnetosphere at pitch angles near 90°. In each pulse the electron energy was modulated between 35 and 43 keV. The electrons were trapped in the Earth's magnetic field and bounced between the northern and southern conjugate points with a period of ～0.65 sec and drifted eastward with a gradient-curvature drift velocity of ～765 m/sec. For about 90 seconds the rocket intercepted the returning echoes. Careful study of the rocket trajectory has allowed a partial space-time picture of an echo to be constructed. The bounce time and drift velocity observations are consistent with predictions based on internal magnetic field models with no electric fields. The flux has the spatial variations predicted by atmospheric scattering models at the southern conjugate point but is about a factor of 10 too low. After some injections delayed echoes are observed, apparently 40 keV electrons whose bounce time has been increased by ～75 msec, but with no change in their bounce averaged drift velocity. Study of detector response during gun pulses revealed three unexplained features: (1) a field aligned upward moving flux after downward injections; (2) a downward moving, time dependent, flux after injections at some upward pitch angles; (3) a lack of altitude (or atmospheric density) dependence on observed count rates.     

Rocket observations of electron spectral and angular characteristics in an “inverted V” event

Energy spectra and pitch angle distributions of auroral electrons in the energy range 2.5–11 keV observed on a rocket flight launched from Andøya on 13 November 1970 are presented. Strong rapidly fluctuating fluxes during the first part of the flight were succeeded by fluxes below or close to the level of detectability. Before the rocket passed through the northern precipitation boundary two spectral events of “inverted V” character occurred. Both events were associated with field aligned pitch angle distributions. While anisotropies with the flux peaked near 0° were in general associated with the spectral peak energy, isotropy over the upper hemisphere was the dominant distribution for other energies. The observations made during these events provide strong support for the theory of a parallel potential drop close to the ionosphere as an important accelerating mechanism for auroral electrons in connection with “inverted V” events.     

Measurements of Electron Anisotropy in Solar Flares Using Albedo with RHESSI X-Ray Data

The angular distribution of electrons accelerated in solar flares is a key parameter in the understanding of the acceleration and propagation mechanisms that occur there. However, the anisotropy of energetic electrons is still a poorly known quantity, with observational studies producing evidence for an isotropic distribution and theoretical models mainly considering the strongly beamed case. We use the effect of photospheric albedo to infer the pitch-angle distribution of X-ray emitting electrons using Hard X-ray data from RHESSI. A bi-directional approximation is applied and a regularised inversion is performed for eight large flare events to deduce the electron spectra in both downward (towards the photosphere) and upward (away from the photosphere) directions. The electron spectra and the electron anisotropy ratios are calculated for a broad energy range, from about ten up to ～?300 keV, near the peak of the flares. The variation of electron anisotropy over short periods of time lasting 4, 8 and 16 seconds near the impulsive peak has been examined. The results show little evidence for strong anisotropy and the mean electron flux spectra are consistent with the isotropic electron distribution. The 3σ level uncertainties, although energy and event dependent, are found to suggest that anisotropic distribution with anisotropy larger than ～?three are not consistent with the hard X-ray data. At energies above 150?–?200 keV, the uncertainties are larger and thus the possible electron anisotropies could be larger.     

The estimate of the Venus magnetotail length

We consider the process of flux tubes straightening in the Venus magnetotail on the basis of MHD model. We estimate the distance x _t, where flux tubes are fully straightened due to the magnetic tension and the magnetotail with the characteristic geometry of field lines (“slingshot” geometry) ends. We investigate the influence of the transversal current sheet scale on the process of flux tubes straightening. The assumption of a thin current sheet allows to obtain a lower estimate of the magnetotail length, x _t > 31R _V (R _V is the Venus radius), while the assumption of a broad current sheet allows to obtain an upper estimate, x _t < 44R _V. We show that kinetic effects associated with the losses of particles with small pitch angles from the flux tube and the influx of magnetosheath plasma into the flux tube do not significantly affect the estimate of the magnetotail length. The model predicts the existence of energetic fluxes of protons H⁺ (2–5 keV) and oxygen ions O⁺ (35–80 keV) in the distant tail. We discuss the magnetotail structure at x > x _t.     

Rocket observations of the interaction of auroral electrons with the atmosphere

Electron spectra obtained during the flight of Black Brant VB-31 on August 17, 1970 through a stable aurora to a height of 268 km have been analyzed in detail to obtain the pitch angle distributions from 25 to 155° and the electron energy distributions over an energy range of 18 keV to 20 eV through the region of atmospheric interaction down to 97 km. Backscatter ratios for 140° pitch angle range from 0.065 for 18 keV electrons to 0.22 for 1 keV electrons. Backscatter of lower energy electrons decreases with atmospheric depth below 200 km. The effect of the interactions between auroral electrons and the atmosphere is such as to give a peak in electron flux which moves progressively to higher energies with penetration depth. The secondary electron flux increases monotonically with height up to 200 km. The secondary electron spectrum can be approximated by an energy power over small energy ranges but its form is somewhat dependent on height and on the primary electron spectrum.     

The effect of strong pitch angle scattering on the use of artificial auroral streaks for echo detection—Echo 5

During the Echo 5 experiment launched 13 November 1979 from the Poker Flat Research Range (Fairbanks, Alaska), a 0.75 A, 37 keV electron beam was injected both up and down the field line. The objective of the experiment was to test the use of optical and X-ray methods to detect the beam as it interacted with the atmosphere below the rocket for both the downward injections (markers) and the upward injected electrons which mirrored at the Southern Hemisphere and returned echoes. A ground-based TV system and rocket borne photometers and X-ray detectors viewed the interaction region. The artificial auroral streaks created by the markers were easily visible on the ground TV system but the large intensity of photons produced around the rocket masked any response to the markers by the on-board photometers and X-ray detectors. No echoes were detected with any of the detection systems although the power in some of the upward injections was 7.6 times the power in a detected downward injection thus setting an upper limit on the loss-cone echo flux. The magnitude of the bounce averaged pitch angle diffusion coefficient necessary to explain the lack of observable echoes was found to be 4 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. Comparing with calculations done by Lyons (1974) for the pitch angle diffusion of electrons by electrostatic waves, it was found that an equatorial wave electric field of 11 mV m⁻¹ would account for the lack of echoes. Such fields should cause strong pitch angle scattering of up to 10 keV natural electrons and thus be consistent with the presence of diffuse aurora on the Echo 5 trajectory. Direct measurements have also revealed such fields in equatorial regions.     

Electron measurements (18 keV–20 eV) in auroral events

Electron spectra measured on a rocket flight AMD-VB-34 through and over a series of auroral forms at Fort Churchill, Canada on 23 January 1974 show what can be described as inverted V events. Comparison with all-sky photographs identify clearly three of the events with three periods when the aurora was successively to the south of, underneath and to the north of the field line on which the rocket was located. In each of these events the electron spectrum changed from one resembling a Maxwellian of characteristic energy 3–4 keV on either side of the form to a nearly flat one out to 18 keV while the rocket was over the form. There was no indication of any spectral peaks in these spectra, which were confined to pitch angles of 70–90°. During descent the rocket moved slowly from over a quiet, fading arc to the equatorward side. Detailed electron observations show the spectrum returning to a Maxwellian distribution with steadily decreasing characteristic energy to 2 keV.     

Field-aligned beams and reconnection in the jovian magnetotail

The release of plasma in the jovian magnetotail is observed in the form of plasmoids, travelling compression regions, field-aligned particle beams and flux-rope like events. We demonstrate that electrons propagate along the magnetic field lines in the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL), while close to the current sheet center the electron distribution is isotropic. The evidences of the counterstreaming electron beams in the PSBLs are also presented. Most of the field-aligned energetic ion beams are associated with the field-aligned electron beams and about half of them have the bipolar fluctuation of the meridional magnetic field component. Moreover they often show a normal velocity dispersion for the different species which fits well in the scenario of particle propagation from a single source. All features above are observed during jovian reconfiguration events which are typically bonded with plasma flow reversals. From all these characteristics, which are based on energetic particle and magnetic field measurements, we believe that the reconfiguration processes in the jovian magnetotail are associated with reconnection.     

Particle precipitation in the south atlantic geomagnetic anomaly

A simple model of the motion of charged particles in the closed field line magnetic field for L ? 4·5 is used together with Injun 3 measurements of 40 keV precipitated electrons made in the northern hemisphere to estimate theoretically the extent of electron precipitation, the energy input and the 3914 Å airglow in the South Atlantic geomagnetic anomaly. Using average values of the northern hemisphere precipitated electron flux, two regions of significantly enhanced electron precipitation are found in the southern hemisphere. One occurs in the region 10–20°E and 40–50°S, with L ≈ 2, and the second near 30°E and 65°S, with L ≈ 4.5. Approximately 0.04 erg cm^?2 sec^?1 are deposited by 40 keV electrons for 50 per cent of the time in the first region and half that amount in the second. This increases to ～0·1 and 0·02 erg cm^?2 sec^?1 respectively for 15 per cent of the time for near sunspot minimum conditions. The results show a gradual increase in precipitation on the western side of the anomaly followed by a rapid increase and sudden cut-off in precipitation within a few degrees west of minimum B. The flux on L = 2 reaches a “spike” in the southern hemisphere ～f35 times greater than the average flux precipitated on L = 2 in the northern hemisphere. This increase in precipitation arises from the loss of “trapped” particles to the atmosphere where the mirror heights are lowest.     

Field line topology in the dayside cusp region inferred from low altitude particle observations

Dayside low altitude satellite observations of the pitch angle and energy distribution of electrons and protons in the energy range 1 eV to 100 eV during quite geomagnetic conditions reveal that at times there is a clear latitudinal separation between the precipitating low energy (keV) electrons and protons, with the protons precipitating poleward of the electrons. The high energy (100 keV) proton precipitation overlaps both the low energy (keV) electron and proton precipitation. These observations are consistent with a model where magnetosheath particles stream in along the cusp field lines and are at the same time convected poleward by an electric field.The electrons with energies of a few keV move fast and give the “ionospheric footprint” of the distant cusp. The protons are partly convected poleward of the cusp and into the polar cap. Here the mirroring protons populate the plasma mantle. Equatorward of the cusp the pitch angle distribution of both electrons and protons with energies above a few keV is pancake shaped indicating closed geomagnetic field lines. The 1 keV electrons, penetrate, however, into this region of closed field line structure maintaining an isotropic pitch angle distribution. The intensity is, however, reduced with respect to what it was in the cusp region. It is suggested that these electrons, the lowest energies measured on the satellite, are associated with the entry layer.     

Enhanced energetic electron intensities at 100 km altitude and a whistler propagating through the plasmasphere

During the flight of a Petrel rocket, instrumented by the SRC Radio and Space Research Station with Geiger counters and launched westwards from South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland (L=3.38), a transient increase was observed in the intensity of energetic electrons having pitch angles between 60 and 120°. The increase, by a factor of 20 above the quasi-steady intensity observed throughout the remainder of the flight, occurred in 0.8 sec and was simultaneous for both >45 keV and >110 keV electrons. Recorded ～0.5 sec later, on the ground, was a two-hop whistler. During the enhanced electron intensity event, the entire duration of which was ～6 sec, the four-, six- and eight-hop whistlers were also received. From an analysis of the whistlers' spectrogram, it is concluded that the whistlers were ducted through the magnetosphere along the L=3.3 ±0.1 field line; the electron density in the equatorial plane is found to be 330 ±10 cm^?3, a value characteristic of conditions within the plasmapause. It is suggested that these temporally and/or spatially associated phenomena, rather than arising by a chance coincidence, were the result of a gyroresonant interaction between energetic electrons and whistler mode waves moving in opposite directions. For gyroresonance on this field line at the equator, the parallel component of energy of the electrons is 25 keV at 3 kHz in the whistler band, or 100 keV at 1 kHz below it. It is suggested that a magnetospheric event occurred, causing both sudden enhanced electron precipitation and favourable conditions for the propagation and/or amplification of whistlers. A possible explanation is that energetic electrons, having a sufficiently anisotropic distribution function and associated with those injected during an earlier auroral substorm, become unstable via the transverse resonance instability when they drift into the plasmasphere, a region of high density thermal plasma.     

The penetration of soft electrons into the ionosphere

Calculations are presented of energy spectra and angular and spatial distributions of electron fluxes in the ionosphere resulting from precipitation ofmonoenergetic (E = 25, 50 and 100 eV) electrons. The incident electrons are assumed to be isotropic over the downward direction. It is found that the resulting steady-state electron fluxes above ca. 300 km are highly anisotropic, and that the pitch angle distribution is energy dependent. About 15 per cent of the incident electrons are backscattered elastically to the protonosphere. A much larger number of electrons escape after they have deposited a part of their energy in the atmosphere. The mean energy of the escaping electrons is about half that of the incident electrons. About 50% of the incident energy is absorbed in the atmosphere, the remainder being returned to the protonosphere. The rate of absorption of energy is a maximum at heights between 300 and 400 km. Most of the energy is absorbed in ionization and excitation of atomic oxygen. An appreciable amount of energy is, however, absorbed as heat by the ambient electron gas. Altitude profiles are presented of the rates of ionization, excitation, and electron heating caused by soft electron precipitation.     

High temporal and spatial resolution observations of low energy electrons by a mother-daughter rocket in the vicinity of two quiescent auroral arcs

Low energy precipitated electrons have been measured with high time resolution through an auroral display by a series of high geometrical factor particle counters on a ‘mother-daughter’ sounding rocket, launched during wintertime near 2100 LT from Andenes, Norway.The observations show that the 0·5–3 keV electron fluxes are anisotropically distributed, with a maximum in a direction parallel to the local geomagnetic field vector at all latitudes covered by the rocket, except within the visual auroral forms where the pitch-angle distributions are isotropic or slightly peaked in a direction normal to the geomagnetic field. The 1 and 3 keV electron fluxes are weakly anticorrelated in the vicinity of the arcs, where also the 3 keV electron flux displays a more structured variation than the 0.5 and 1 keV electron fluxes.     

Effects of photoelectron heating and interhemisphere transport on day-time plasma temperatures at low latitudes

The thermal balance of the plasma in the day-time equatorial F region is examined. Steady-state solutions of electron and ion temperatures are obtained, assuming the ions are O⁺ and H⁺. The theoretical concentrations of O⁺ and H⁺ and the field-aligned velocity were obtained following Moffett and Hanson (1973), while theoretical photoelectron heating rates of the electron gas were taken from Swartz et al. (1975).The results demonstrate the gross features in the electron and ion temperatures as observed at the Jicamarca Observatory and in the ion temperatures observed on the OGO-6 satellite. The rapid increase in electron temperature above 500 km at the magnetic equator is due to heating by photoelectrons created at higher latitudes and travelling up along the field lines. The rapid increase in ion temperature is due to good thermal contact with the electrons rather than the neutrals. It is shown that field-aligned interhemispheric thermal plasma flows appreciably affect these temperatures, and that, with a net plasma flow from the summer hemisphere to the winter hemisphere, the temperatures are higher in the winter hemisphere. These effects are related to the character of the ion temperature minimum observed by OGO-6 near the magnetic equator.     

Proton observations supporting the ion cyclotron wave heating theory of SAR arc formation

Low altitude satellite observations of precipitated and locally mirroring protons during periods of ground-based SAR arc observations are presented. The SAR arcs are found to be located in a region with significantly enhanced proton pitch angle scattering and enhanced electron temperature, but inside the plasmapause where the proton pitch angle distribution is anisotropic. The increase in the pitch angle scattering takes place in a localized region having a width of a few tenths of a L-value. The observations can favourably be accounted for by the Cornwall et al. (1971) theory for the SAR arc formation. Using observed proton fluxes and typical energy spectra, the expected Hβ intensity in the SAR arc region is estimated to be a few Rayleighs, and the energy flux from precipitated protons above a few keV to be 10^?2?10^?1erg/cm²s. These estimates are in reasonable agreement with previously published theoretical and experimental values. Simultaneous groundbased observations of Hα emissions were found in the region of intense, isotropic proton precipitation located outside the plasmapause.     

Anisotropy of > 35keV ions in corotating particle events at 1 AU

The anisotropy of 35–1000 keV ions in two corotating particle events associated with high-speed solar wind streams at 1 AU is examined in terms of the diffusion-convection propagation model using data from the Energetic Proton Anisotropy Spectrometer on ISEE-3. The calculated diffusive anisotropy in the solar wind frame is found to be sunward and closely field-aligned, with a nearly energy-independent magnitude of ～ 40%. For one stream, using the Voyager 2 data of Decker et al. (1981), a positive gradient of ～ 100%/AU is found for ? 50 keV ions between 1 and 4 AU. The observations do not appear to support the scatter-free propagation model and indicate that ions with energies as low as a few tens of keV may be in diffusive equilibrium with the solar wind in this class of events.     

The topside equatorial ionosphere during daytime: Elevated plasma temperatures,the transequatorial O+ breeze and the dynamics of minor ions

Steady-state calculations are performed for the daytime equatorial F2-region and topside ionosphere. Values are calculated of the electron and ion temperatures and the concentrations and field-aligned velocities of the ions O⁺, H⁺ and He⁺. Account is taken of upward $\text{E × B}$ drift, a summer-winter horizontal neutral air wind and heating of the electron gas by thermalization of fast photoelectrons.The calculated plasma temperatures are in accord with experiment: at the equator there is an isothermal region from about 400–550 km altitude, with temperatures of about 2400 K around 800 km altitude. The transequatorial O⁺ breeze flux from summer to winter in the topside ionosphere is not greatly affected by the elevated plasma temperatures. The field-aligned velocities of H⁺ and He⁺ depend strongly on the O⁺ field-aligned velocity and on the presence of large temperature gradients. For the minor ions, ion-ion drag with O⁺ cannot be neglected for the topside ionosphere.     

On the structure of the Io torus

It is now recognized that a number of neutral-plasma interaction processes are of great importance in the formation of the Io torus. One effect not yet considered in detail is the charge exchange between fast torus ions and the atmospheric neutrals producing fast neutrals energetic enough to escape from Io. Since near Io the plasma flow is reduced, the neutrals of charge exchange origin are not energetic enough to leave the Jovian system; these neutrals are therefore distributed over an extensive region as indicated by the sodium cloud. It is estimated here that the total neutral injection rate can reach 10²⁷ s^?1 if not more. New ions subsequently created in the distributed neutral atomic cloud as a result of charge exchange or electron impact ionization are picked up by the corotating magnetic field. The pick-up ions are hot with initial gyration speed near the corotation speed. The radial current driven by the pickup process cannot close in the torus but must be connected to the planetary ionosphere by field-aligned currents. These field-aligned currents will flow away from the equator at the outer edge of the neutral cloud and towards it at the inner edge. We find that the Jovian ionospheric photoelectrons alone cannot supply the current flowing away from the equator, and torus ions accelerated by a parallel electric field could be involved. The parallel potential drop is estimated to be several kV which is large enough to push the torus ions into the Jovian atmosphere. This loss could explain the sharp discontinuous change of flux tube content and ion temperature at L = 5.6 as well as the generation of auroral type hiss there. Finally we show that the inner torus should be denser at system III longitudes near 240° as a result of the enhanced secondary electron flux in this region. This effect may be related to the longitudinal brightness variation observed in the SII optical emissions.     

Rocket observation of conjugate photoelectrons in the predawn ionosphere

Photoelectron flux in the energy range 6–70 eV coming from the sunlight conjugate ionosphere has been measured directly by the rocket borne low energy electron spectrometer in the altitude region of 210–350 km. Pitch angle distribution of the measured flux is nearly isotropic, the flux decreasing slightly with pitch angle. The photoelectron fluxes measured at 350 km at the energies of 15 and 30 eV are 3 × 10⁶ and 1 × 10⁶ (cm² s str eV)^?1 respectively which decrease to 1 × 10⁶ and 1 × 10⁵ at 250 km at the same energies. These values are consistent with the vertical profile of the 630 nm airglow intensity measured simultaneously. The fluxes obtained near apogee show peaks in the range 20–30 eV which also appear in the daytime photoelectron flux, indicating reduced loss of electrons during the passage from the conjugate ionosphere through the plasmasphere at the low geomagnetic latitude where observation was made. Photoelectron fluxes observed below the apogee height are compared to the calculated fluxes to investigate the interaction of electrons with the atmospheric species during the passage in the ionosphere. Calculated fluxes obtained by using continuous slowing-down approximation and neglecting pitch angle scattering are in good agreement with the observations although there still remain disagreements in detailed comparison which may be ascribed to the assumptions inherent in the calculation and/or to the uncertainties of the input data for the calculation.