Particle precipitation and ionospheric convection morphology in dayside aurora

We present particle precipitation and ionospheric ion measurements from the Black Brant rocket IVB-38, which was launched from Cape Parry, Northwest Territories, Canada, on December 10, 1981, at 2314:58.5 UT as part of Project CENTAUR. The payload reached an apogee of 603 km and crossed two regions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Journal of Physics
Main Authors: Yau, A. W., Whalen, B. A., Steele, T. G.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1986
Subjects:
General Physics and Astronomy
Northwest Territories
Canada
Parry
Cape Parry
Brant
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/p86-255
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/p86-255
Description
Summary:We present particle precipitation and ionospheric ion measurements from the Black Brant rocket IVB-38, which was launched from Cape Parry, Northwest Territories, Canada, on December 10, 1981, at 2314:58.5 UT as part of Project CENTAUR. The payload reached an apogee of 603 km and crossed two regions of electron precipitation. In both precipitation regions, the energetic-electron spectra were soft, with peak intensities of ≈10 10 cm −2 ∙s −1 ∙keV −1 at 200 eV. The 100-eV electrons were anisotropic in the downcoming hemisphere (field aligned). The spectra varied with the electron pitch angle. They had larger characteristic energy at small pitch angles and revealed appreciable atmospheric degradation (and hence predicted optical auroral emissions) in the 300-km altitude region. No proton precipitation was observed. The topology of the ionospheric convection was found to be correlated with both the location and the drift motion of the aurora.

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