Atmospheric ionization by precipitated electrons

Abstract

From Introduction: Precipitation of energetic particl es into the upper atmosphere is known to cause aurora at high latitudes. Sanae is situated in the vicinity of the South Atlantic Geomagnetic Anomaly (Gledhill and Van Rooyen (1963)) where the magnetic field intensity is very low and it is felt that this phenomenon may enhance the loss of particles from the trapping zone into the upper atmosphere. Previous work at Rhodes has shown that it is extremely likely that particle precipitation could be the cause of some ionospheric effects at Sanae. Gledhill and Torr (1966) found that a "disturbed" ionosphere at Sanae was linked with "high" fluxes of precipitated electrons in the area conjugate to Sanae. Later papers by Gledhill, Torr and Torr (1967), and Torr and Torr (1967a, 1968a) established that electrons are precipitated over a large part of the earth's surface and this phenomenon is probably responsible for an average of about 30% of F-layer disturbances. The frequency of precipitation and corresponding disturbances is most pronounced in the South Atlantic Geomagnetic Anomaly .,KMBT_363,Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in