A Statistical Study of Electron Butterfly Pitch Angle Distributions Using POLAR

Details A Statistical Study of Electron Butterfly Pitch Angle Distributions Using POLAR A Statistical Study of Electron Butterfly Pitch Angle Distributions Using POLAR

May 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusmsm42a..14d&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #SM42A-14

Physics

2700 Magnetospheric Physics, 2720 Energetic Particles, Trapped

Scientific paper

indent 15pt As the line of apsides of the orbit of the POLAR spacecraft has precessed, the radial distance at which the orbit of the spacecraft intersects the equatorial plane has steadily increased. Beginning in 1999, the crossing exceeded distances of six Earth radii and a particle distribution exhibiting a deficiency in particles with pitch angles nearly perpendicular to magnetic field lines was frequently observed in the energetic electron measurements made by the POALR CEPPAD HIST and IES sensors. (Blake, et al, 1995) Such particle distributions, known as "butterfly" distributions, represent a region in pitch angle space that is shadowed by the magnetopause and can provide information about its stand off distance. The occurrence of "butterfly" distributions also reflects the configuration and combined influence of the Earth's magnetosphere and the dawn to dusk electric field. In particular, the study observed sector versus time roll plots for data recorded between the years 1999 and 2001. Information corresponding to the spacecraft entering such regions of particle pitch angle distribution was collected and analyzed. Polar plots of magnetic local time versus radial distance have been generated and are compared to equatorial contours of constant magnetic field, as well as to the theoretical motion of such particles constrained under the 1st adiabatic invariant within realistic magnetic and electric fields. Blake, et al, Space Science Reviews 71: 531-562, 1995. 1995 Kluwer academic Publishers. Printed in Belgium.

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