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Low‐altitude satellite measurements of pulsating auroral electrons
Author(s) -
Samara M.,
Michell R. G.,
Redmon R. J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2015ja021292
Subject(s) - electron , satellite , physics , electron precipitation , range (aeronautics) , secondary electrons , ionosphere , altitude (triangle) , sky , computational physics , astrophysics , geophysics , plasma , astronomy , magnetosphere , materials science , nuclear physics , geometry , mathematics , composite material
We present observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and Reimei satellites, where common‐volume high‐resolution ground‐based auroral imaging data are available. These satellite overpasses of ground‐based all‐sky imagers reveal the specific features of the electron populations responsible for different types of pulsating aurora modulations. The energies causing the pulsating aurora mostly range from 3 keV to 20 keV but can at times extend up to 30 keV. The secondary, low‐energy electrons (<1 keV) are diminished from the precipitating distribution when there are strong temporal variations in auroral intensity. There are often persistent spatial structures present inside regions of pulsating aurora, and in these regions there are secondary electrons in the precipitating populations. The reduction of secondary electrons is consistent with the strongly temporally varying pulsating aurora being associated with field‐aligned currents and hence parallel potential drops of up to 1 kV.