Study of auroral dynamics with combined spacecraft and incoherent-scatter radar data. Quarterly progress report No. 5, 1 September-31 December 1992

Technical Report · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6306235

Watermann, J

Sondrestrom incoherent-scatter radar observations of ionospheric plasma density and temperature distributions have been examined, as well as measurements of F-region ion drifts that were made during a prenoon pass by the DMSP-F7 satellite through the radar field of view. The spacecraft traversed a region of intense electron precipitation with a characteristic energy below approximately 200 eV. Particles with such low characteristic energies are believed to originate, either directly or indirectly, in the magnetosheath. The precipitation region had a width of about 2 deg invariant latitude. The corotating radar observed a patch of enhanced electron density and elevated electron temperature in the F2 region between about 10.5 and 12 magnetic local time in the same invariant latitude range where DMSP-F7 detected the soft-electron flux. The ion drift pattern, also obtained by radar, shows that it is unlikely that the plasma patch was produced by solar radiation and advected into the radar field of view. The authors suggest that the radar observed modifications of the ionospheric plasma distribution resulted from direct entry of magnetosheath electrons into the magnetosphere and down to ionospheric altitudes. Model calculations of the ionospheric response to the observed electron flux support this interpretation.

• Research Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6306235
• Report Number(s): N-93-26159; NASA-CR-192224; NAS-1.26:192224; CNN: NASW-4063; SRI PROJ. 2781
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Original contains color illustrations
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAE
DYNAMICS
F REGION
ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
PLASMA DENSITY
RADAR
INCOHERENT SCATTERING
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
MAGNETOSHEATH
PROGRESS REPORT
SATELLITES
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
CHARGED-PARTICLE PRECIPITATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
IONOSPHERE
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RANGE FINDERS
SCATTERING
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)