Electron precipitation burst in the nighttime slot region measured simultaneously from two satellites
Based on data acquired in 1982 with the Stimulated Emission of Energetic Particles payload on the low-altitude (170--280 km) S81-1 spacecraft and the Space Environment Monitor instrumentation on the NOAA 6 satellite (800--830 km), a study has been made of short-duration nighttime electron precipitation bursts at L = 2.0--35. From 54 passes of each satellite across the slot region simultaneously in time, 21 bursts were observed on the NOAA 6 spacecraft, and 76 on the S81-1 satellite. Five events, probably associated with lightning, were observed simultaneously from the two spacecraft within 1.2 s, providing a measure of the spatial extent of the bursts. This limited sample indicates that the intensity of precipitation events falls off with width in longitude and L shell but individual events extend as much as 5/sup 0/ in invariant latitude and 43/sup 0/ in longitude. The number of events above a given flux observed in each satellite was found to be approximately inversely proportional to the flux. The time average energy input to the atmosphere over the longitude range 180 /sup 0/E to 360 /sup 0/E at a local time of 2230 directly from short-duration bursts spanning a wide range of intensity enhancements was estimated to be about 6 x 10/sup -6/ ergs/cm/sup 2/ s in the northern hemisphere and about 1.5 x 10/sup -5/ ergs/cm/sup 2/ s in the southern hemisphere. In the south, this energy precipitation rate is lower than that from electrons in the drift loss cone by about 2 orders of magnitude. However, on the basis of these data alone we cannot discount weak bursts from being a major contributor to populating the drift loss cone with electrons which ultimately precipitate into the atmosphere. copyrightAmerican Geophysical Union 1987
- Research Organization:
- Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, California
- OSTI ID:
- 6349125
- Journal Information:
- J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Geophys. Res.; (United States) Vol. 92:A5; ISSN JGREA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHARGED-PARTICLE PRECIPITATION
DATA ANALYSIS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
ENERGY LEVELS
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATIONS
IONOSPHERE
LIGHTNING
LOSS CONE
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
SATELLITES
US NOAA
US ORGANIZATIONS
VARIATIONS