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Freja observations of a ten‐meter boundary within monoenergetic auroral electron precipitation
Author(s) -
Boehm M. H.,
Clemmons J.,
Paschmann G.
Publication year - 1995
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 - 10.1029/94gl02555
Subject(s) - electron precipitation , precipitation , electron , population , acceleration , dispersion (optics) , physics , spectrometer , boundary (topology) , computational physics , atmospheric sciences , pitch angle , geophysics , plasma , atomic physics , magnetosphere , astrophysics , optics , meteorology , nuclear physics , mathematical analysis , demography , mathematics , sociology , classical mechanics
A ∼2‐ms transition in auroral electron precipitation observed by the TESP electron spectrometer on Freja is described. The lack of significant pitch‐angle dependent velocity dispersion in the observations implies that the transition is a ∼10‐m spatial, rather than temporal, boundary. There is no evidence of associated changes in the accelerating potential. Either the source population, or the mechanism allowing entry of the source population to the acceleration region, must provide for the sharp observed transitions. The energy fluxes are such that the regions of stronger precipitation are marginally visible arcs.