Survey of Trapped Plasmas at the Earth's Magnetic Equator

Abstract

Analysis of data from the HPCE experiment on the AMPTE/CCE satellite established probability distributions for trapped ions and electrons. Trapped 150 eV electrons occurred primarily in the dawn to noon local time sector, centered at L=6. Trapped 50-150 eV ion distributions show strong L versus local time dependence, but are primarily found on the dayside (the dusk sector was not sampled for ions in this survey). This local time dependence appears to reflect the L versus local time dependence of the plasmapause. The regions of peak occurrence probability for trapped ions were mutually exclusive with the high probability regions of trapped electrons. This offset in the location of trapped plasma species was seen frequently on a daily basis as well as in the statistical survey.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA245773

Entities

People

  • Peter G. Braccio

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Charged Particles
  • Data Analysis
  • Detectors
  • Electron Flux
  • Electrons
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Mass Spectrometers
  • Measurement
  • Plasmas (Physics)
  • Plasmasphere
  • Probability
  • Probability Distributions
  • Solar Wind
  • Spacecraft
  • Time Dependence
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Regression Analysis.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster