ENERGY DISSIPATION OF SPIRALING PARTICLES IN THE POLAR ATMOSPHERE

Abstract

The magnetic field in the polar regions may be regarded as uniform and vertical to the earth's surface. Charged particles impinging into the atmosphere in these regions follow a spiral orbit along the magnetic line of force. Since the rates of energy loss of these particles are the same in all directions, the pitch angle, alpha, of these incident particles is constant till the end of the range of the particles. In other words, incident particles maintain spiral motions with constant pitch angles, while the radius of gyration decreases corresponding to the energy loss experienced by the particle with increasing atmospheric depth. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1961
Accession Number
AD0265005

Entities

People

  • K. Maeda
  • S.f. Singer

Organizations

  • University of Maryland

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atmospheres
  • Charged Particles
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Particles
  • Polar Regions
  • Regions

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerodynamics/Aeronautics.
  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Solar Physics

Technology Areas

  • Space