A Beam/Plasma Interaction in the High-Altitude Auroral Ionosphere

Authors

A. D. Johnstone
Jan Josef Sojka, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Planetary and Space Science

Volume

28

Issue

5

Publication Date

1980

First Page

467

Last Page

474

Abstract

Ambient thermal electrons are found to be heated to temperatures as high as 105 K by the passage of a field-aligned beam of suprathermal electrons through the ionosphere at altitudes over 660 km. These secondary electrons will increase the proportion of 630 nm emission, caused by the primary electron precipitation, and change the secondary electron spectrum observed at lower altitudes from that expected on the basis of atmospheric collisions alone.

Comments

Originally published by Elsevier. Publisher’s PDF available through remote link.

Recommended Citation

Johnstone, A. D., and J. J. Sojka, A beam/plasma interaction in the high-altitude auroral ionosphere, Planet. Space Sci., 28, 467–474, 1980.

https://doi.org/10.1016/0032-0633(80)90028-8