Rocket observations of modulations of the low energy electron flux in the auroral ionosphere

An instrument has been developed for observing the high frequency modulations or fluctuations (upto several megahertzs) of the auroral electron flux. The instrument utilizes an on-board processing hardware for calculating autocorrelation functions of particle flux measured by any type of particle de...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Eiichi Sagawa, Hisao Yamagishi, Hiroshi Miyaoka, Nobuyuki Kaya, Toshifumi Mukai
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: Radio Research Laboratory/National Institute of Polar Research/National Institute of Polar Research/Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University/The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science 1988
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Online Access:https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=4032
http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00004032/
https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=4032&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1
Description
Summary:An instrument has been developed for observing the high frequency modulations or fluctuations (upto several megahertzs) of the auroral electron flux. The instrument utilizes an on-board processing hardware for calculating autocorrelation functions of particle flux measured by any type of particle detector which output a series of pulses. Two rocket observations by using the instrument were carried out as a part of low energy auroral electron experiments on board the S-310JA-11 and -12 rockets which were launched into the Antarctic auroral ionosphere. The instrument is capable of measuring the flux modulations in three frequency ranges, i. e. 1.5-100Hz, 0.1-8kHz and 0.1-4MHz, respectively. Results from one rocket experiment launched under relatively quiet conditions indicate that the auroral electrons are almost uniform in the high frequency range. Results from another rocket experiment (JA-12) conducted under highly active aurora conditions show low frequency modulations of electron flux associated with a strong electron precipitation.