Upward high-energy field-aligned electron beams above the polar edge of auroral oval: observations from the SKA-3 instruments onboard the Auroral Probe (Interball-2)

Stepanov, V. A.; Galperin, Y. I.; Kuzmin, A. K.; Shuiskaya, F. K.; Gorn, L. S.; Ilyin, B. A.; Iovlev, M. V.; Klimashov, A. A.; Cherkashin, I. I.; Khazanov, B. I.; Safronov, A. Y.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-998-1046-1

Articles | Volume 16, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-998-1046-1

Special issue:

INTERBALL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-998-1046-1

Articles | Volume 16, issue 9

30 Sep 1998

Upward high-energy field-aligned electron beams above the polar edge of auroral oval: observations from the SKA-3 instruments onboard the Auroral Probe (Interball-2)

V. A. Stepanov, Y. I. Galperin, A. K. Kuzmin, F. K. Shuiskaya, L. S. Gorn, B. A. Ilyin, M. V. Iovlev, A. A. Klimashov, I. I. Cherkashin, B. I. Khazanov, and A. Y. Safronov

Abstract. A new phenomenon was found at the polar edge of the auroral oval in the postmidnight-morning sectors: field-aligned (FA) high-energy upward electron beams in the energy range 20–40 keV at altitudes about 3R_E, accompanied by bidirectional electron FA beams of keV energy. The beam intensity often reaches more than 0.5·10³ electrons/s·sr·keV·cm², and the beams are observed for a relatively long time (~3·10²–10³s), when the satellite at the apogee moves slowly in the ILAT-MLT frame. A qualitative scenario of the acceleration mechanism is proposed, according to which the satellite is within a region of bidirectional acceleration where a stochastic FA acceleration is accomplished by waves with fluctuating FA electric field components in both directions.

Key words. Ionosphere (particle acceleration; wave-particle interactions) · Magnetospheric physics (magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions)