Variations in the Escaping Flux and Characteristic Energies of O+ and Other Ions as a Function of Solar Illumination.
Abstract
We report the characteristic energy and flux of escaping ionospheric ions observed from Polar/TIMAS at altitudes of 6,000 to 8,000 km as a function of both season and solar zenith angle. Comparisons of the Polar observations with those obtained at different altitudes and over different energy ranges from DE-1, FAST, and Akebono show that the 15ev to 30 keV energy range sampled by Polar/TIMAS includes almost all of the O+ escaping from the ionosphere. We find that O+ intensity is weakest and He+ intensities strongest in the winter. We find that the characteristic O+ energy is higher in the winter than in the summer. In addition we find significantly different variations of the characteristic energies and fluxes in the cusp and midnight regions. We will present an overview of our results and discuss how the variations in energy, intensity, and source location can have significant impacts on the distribution of ionospheric plasmas in the magnetosphere
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AGUFMSM41C1196P
- Keywords:
-
- 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704);
- 2451 Particle acceleration;
- 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431);
- 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics