Pinhole x-ray cameras for imaging small-scaled auroral structures

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Optical Engineering; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.149185· OSTI ID:5341017

Parks, G K; Werden, S H; McCarthy, M P ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Geophysics Program

A balloon-borne x-ray pinhole camera has been developed to detect and image auroral x-rays in the energy range 20 to 120 keV. The authors have flown this camera on four different occasions and have imaged bremsstrahlung x-rays from precipitated energetic electrons in the auroral zone and from a circumpolar navigating balloon in Antarctica. The images, which include several dynamic precipitation temporal forms, show that auroral x-rays persistently include small spatial structures of [approx]20 km (at ionospheric heights). The x-ray energy spectral information as a function of space and time shows that electron precipitation often includes two energy components that can be fit by exponential functions. Typical e-folding energies of these spectra are a few kilo-electron-volts and several tens of kilo-electron-volts. The x-ray camera remote senses characteristics of energetic electron sources in the distant magnetosphere that cannot be achieved by any other means.

• OSTI ID: 5341017
• Journal Information: Optical Engineering; (United States), Journal Name: Optical Engineering; (United States) Vol. 32:12; ISSN 0091-3286; ISSN OPEGAR
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAE
CHARGED-PARTICLE PRECIPITATION
DETECTION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
IMAGES
RADIATION DETECTION
REMOTE SENSING
X-RAY DETECTION