Ionospheric response to daytime auroral electron precipitation: results and analysis of a coordinated experiment between the AUREOL- 3 satellite and the EISCAT radar.

K. Stamnes, S. Perraut, J. M. Bosqued, M. H. Rees, R. G. Roble

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

On June 2, 1982 the Soviet-French polar orbiting satellite AUREOL-3 passed over the EISCAT facility in northern Scandinavia. The EISCAT UHF radar measured electron and ion temperatures, electron density and ion composition, while the satellite measured the incident auroral particle spectra (protons and electrons) presumably giving rise to the densities and temperatures inferred from the radar data. The link between the satellite data obtained well above the atmosphere (at about 1300 km), and the radar measurements is an auroral model that simulates the ionospheric response to auroral particle precipitation and solar EUV radiation and makes predictions of ionospheric properties that 1) can be measured by the radar and 2) are the consequence of the satellite-observed particle precipitation. The analysis shows that there is good agreement between model-predicted and radar-inferred electron and ion temperatures, and ion composition. However, inference of the ion composition from the radar is a non-trivial and time-consuming undertaking which requires very good data (ie long integration times). Our initial attempts at analyzing the radar data with a fixed ion composition (as commonly practiced) which greatly simplifies the analysis yielded poor agreement between model predictions and radar measurements. Thus, our analysis demonstrates that the proper ion composition is crucial in order to obtain reliable temperature and density results from the measured autocorrelation functions. -Authors

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-240
Number of pages6
JournalAnnales Geophysicae, Series A
Volume4 A
Issue number3
StatePublished - 1986

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