Premium
Monte‐Carlo Modeling of polar wind photoelectron distributions with anomalous heat flux
Author(s) -
Yasseen F.,
Retterer J. M.,
Chang Tom,
Winningham J. D.
Publication year - 1989
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/gl016i009p01023
Subject(s) - physics , electron , electric field , computational physics , polar , monte carlo method , solar wind , polar wind , earth's magnetic field , flux (metallurgy) , ionosphere , magnetic field , kinetic energy , distribution function , geophysics , atomic physics , interplanetary magnetic field , classical mechanics , nuclear physics , materials science , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , metallurgy
In situ measurements above the polar cap by the DE satellites show asymmetric, field‐aligned electron velocity distributions in the photoelectron energy range (5–60 eV). The formation of these anisotropic distributions is described by a collisional kinetic equation that includes the effects of Coulomb collisions (via a Fokker‐Planck operator), those of a parallel electric field, and the magnetic mirror effects of the geomagnetic field. We solve this equation using a Monte Carlo simulation method. The simulation illustrates the formation of the portion of the observed electron distributions originating in the ionosphere, and permits us to evaluate the significance of the suprathermal electrons at higher altitude. Both observations and calculations indicate that these electrons possess an energy flux which, by its effect on the polar wind electric field, may influence the dynamics of the polar wind outflow.