Journal article
Electron temperature and density at high latitude
Journal of geophysical research, Vol.103(A7), pp.14837-14845
1998
DOI: 10.1029/98JA00962
Abstract
The background electron temperature and density at altitudes between 1000 and 8000 km at invariant latitudes > 60° have been determined from swept Langmuir probe measurements from the S3-3 satellite. These plasma parameters are determined by fitting the measured probe current-voltage relation to the expected theoretical response. Statistically acceptable fits are found for ∼20% of all measurements and do not include measurements within the auroral density cavity. The results indicate that the density varies as an inverse power law with increasing altitude which has a typical value of 10 cm−3 at 8000 km in altitude. The electron temperature shows a slight increase with altitude but is < 5 eV for almost all measurements. These results suggest that the background plasma outside of auroral density cavities on high-latitude field lines below 8000 km is dominated by cold plasma of ionospheric origin which is at least an order of magnitude more dense than hotter magnetospheric components.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Electron temperature and density at high latitude
- Creators
- C. A Kletzing - University of IowaF. S Mozer - Space Science Laboratory, University of Califomia, Berkeley, United StatesR. B Torbert - University of New Hampshire
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of geophysical research, Vol.103(A7), pp.14837-14845
- DOI
- 10.1029/98JA00962
- ISSN
- 0148-0227
- eISSN
- 2156-2202
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 1998
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984199856702771
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