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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

E-layer due to pure-proton aurora

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6193471

It is now well-known that in the evening sector of the auroral oval and at latitudes equatorward of the electron precipitation boundary, the auroral E-layer is produced solely by the precipitating energetic protons, the H atoms that are created by charge-exchange collisions of protons, and by the secondary electrons that are generated. A numerical code has been developed to solve the coupled proton-H atom linear transport equations for a pure proton aurora. The solutions give proton and H atom fluxes as a function of altitude, energy, and pitch angle, for a given incident proton flux. From the particle fluxes, energy deposition rates, ionization rates, and electron density profiles (EDP) are calculated. Results of these calculations are presented. Comparisons between calculated EDP and radar measured EDP are shown using nearly coincident satellite data for the incident proton spectra.

Research Organization:
Air Force Geophysics Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA (United States)
OSTI ID:
6193471
Report Number(s):
AD-P-006271/1/XAB
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English