Accession Number:
ADA139122
Title:
Electron Energy Deposition in the Middle Atmosphere.
Descriptive Note:
Technical rept.,
Corporate Author:
AEROSPACE CORP EL SEGUNDO CA SPACE SCIENCES LAB
Personal Author(s):
Report Date:
1983-12-05
Pagination or Media Count:
36.0
Abstract:
Spectra of locally precipitating 36 to 317 keV electrons obtained by instrumentation on the S3-2 satellite are used to calculate energy deposition profiles as a function of latitude, longitude, and altitude. In the 70 - 90 km altitude, midlatitude ionization due to these precipitating energetic electrons can be comparable to that due to direct solar H Lyman alpha. At night, the electrons produce ionization more than an order of magnitude greater than that expected from scattered H Lyman alpha. Maximum precipitation rates in the region of the South Atlantic Anomaly are on the order of 1100 ergsw cm-sec with a spectrum of the form jE 134000 x 1E 2.27 power keV. Southern hemisphere precipitation dominates that in the north for 1.1 L 6 except for regions of low local surface field in the northern hemisphere. Above L 6, local time effects dominates i.e., longitudinal effects due to the asymmetric magnetic field which are strong features below L 6 disappear and are replaced by high-latitude precipitation events which are local-time features. Author
Descriptors:
Subject Categories:
- Atmospheric Physics