Incoherent scatter radar studies of electron precipitation

• Main Author: Tesfaw, H. W. (Habtamu Wubie)
• Other Authors: Virtanen, I. (Ilkka), Aikio, A. (Anita)
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Oulun yliopisto 2023
• Subjects: aurora; electron precipitation; incoherent scatter radar; Norway; Tromsø; EISCAT
• Online Access: http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526237084

Abstract In the studies presented in this thesis, we use the EISCAT UHF incoherent scatter radar (ISR) to study electron precipitation. A new ISR data analysis technique called BAFIM (BAyesian FIltering Module) is developed to calculate plasma parameters (electron density, electron temperature, ion temperature and line of sight ion velocity) with high time and range resolutions from incoherent scatter radar autocorrelation function (ACF) data. BAFIM adds properties of the so-called full-profile analysis to the standard EISCAT data analysis tool, GUISDAP, and extends the concept of full-profile analysis from range direction to both range and time. BAFIM-fitted electron density is used to study a rapidly varying electron precipitation event with high time resolution (4 s). Using a method called ELSPEC, differential number fluxes of precipitating electrons are inverted from electron density altitude profiles measured along the geomagnetic field line by the EISCAT UHF incoherent scatter radar. We show that the raw electron density, that was previously used in high time resolution works, may significantly underestimate the true electron density, when auroral electron precipitation heats the electron gas. The bias affects also electron energy spectra inverted from the raw density profiles, as well as auroral powers and field-aligned currents integrated from the spectra. Temporal variations of the auroral power derived from the fitted electron density show a very good agreement with variations of auroral emission intensity at 427.8 nm. Using more than 20 years of EISCAT UHF radar data, we study statistical characteristics of 1–100 keV electron precipitation at 66.7° magnetic latitude over Tromsø, Norway. Peak energy, auroral power and number flux of electron precipitation are derived from the radar data using the ELSPEC method. We find that 1–5 keV electrons dominate the precipitation from evening until morning in magnetic local time (MLT), while 5–10 keV electrons dominate the late morning hours (06–09 MLT). The average peak energy ...