Ionospheric Photoelectrons Measured at Geosynchronous Orbit
Abstract
Measurements of ions and electrons were made by the Los Alamos National Laboratory instrument, the Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer, onboard spacecraft 1989-046. Observations from five days indicated the presence of both field aligned electrons and equatorially trapped electrons. Correlation existed between occurrences and location in the magnetosphere. Field aligned electrons were measured in the plasmasphere during daylight. On two days, field aligned electrons were also noted in the midnight region of the magnetosphere. Field aligned electrons at energies between 1 and 50 eV were characterized. These electron's spectrum were shown to be similar in shape to the ionospheric photoelectron distribution. Conic distributions of photoelectrons were observed between 08:00 and 10:00 local time on days when both photoelectrons and equatorially trapped electrons were present. V sub parallel versus V sub perpendicular spectrograms clearly indicated that photoelectrons undergo perpendicular acceleration. Lack of any magnetic field measurements or collection of wave data prevented determining the source of the acceleration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA272431
Entities
People
- John S. Laszakovits
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School