Investigations of the Polar Rain: Polar Cap Electron Precipitation.

Abstract

A study of the characteristics of the polar rain using data from the SSJ/4 sensor on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F6 satellite Dawn/Dusk flux gradients are verified as being controlled by the interplanetaryh magnetic field Y component at least 84% of the time. The IMP Z copmonent is shown to play a role in generating flux gradients. The polar rain is best characterized by a double maxwellian distribution with typical temperatures of 80-90 eV for the low energy component and 3.6-4.8 KeV for the high energy component. The characteristics of the low energy compenent of the polar rain strongly match those of the solar wind strahl component, suggesting the polar rain is of strahl origin. But correlations with IMF sector structure and solar wind parameters do not show the relationships proposed since the 'unpreferred' cap generally has the same polar rain characteristics as the 'preferred' cap. Keywords: Electrtron precipitation; Solar wind; Theses; Interplanetary magnetic fields; Polar caps.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA178876

Entities

People

  • Kevin B. Riehl

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Boundary Layer
  • Charged Particles
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Data Analysis
  • Detectors
  • Electron Flux
  • Engineering
  • Low Altitude
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Meteorological Satellites
  • New York
  • Particle Flux
  • Polar Cap
  • Space Sciences
  • Trajectories
  • Wind Velocity

Readers

  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space