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High resolution FUV observations of proton aurora
Author(s) -
Chua D. H.,
Dymond K. F.,
Budzien S. A.,
McCoy R. P.,
Gérard J.C.,
Coumans V.,
Bisikalo D.,
Shematovich V.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl017830
Subject(s) - proton , physics , doppler effect , ionosphere , satellite , spectral line , flux (metallurgy) , spectral resolution , spectrograph , astrophysics , atmospheric sciences , computational physics , astronomy , nuclear physics , materials science , metallurgy
We present new FUV observations of Doppler‐shifted Lyman‐α emissions from proton aurora obtained from the High Resolution Ionospheric and Thermospheric Spectrograph (HITS) aboard the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS). The HITS instrument observes the Doppler‐shifted H Lyman‐α emissions from proton precipitation with 1.5 Å resolution. The high spectral resolution of these measurements allows the auroral Lyman‐α emissions to be separated from the intense geocoronal background. The measured proton aurora Doppler spectra are modeled using a Monte Carlo simulation of proton flux transport. The forward modeling performed with this code allows us to infer the characteristic energies of the incident protons from the measured Lyman‐α Doppler spectra. The inferred characteristics of dayside versus nightside proton precipitation are compared and used to identify the magnetospheric regions from which the particles likely originated.