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)

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 3RE, 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)