HR: 1330h
AN: SM43C-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Ionospheric Kappa Electron Distributions
AU: * Kletzing, C
EM: craig-kletzing@uiowa.edu
AF: University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 203 Van Allen Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Chen, L
EM: li-jen-chen@uiowa.edu
AF: University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 203 Van Allen Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AB: In the Earth's auroral zone at low to intermediate altitudes (2000-8000 km), plasma sheet electrons mix with colder ionospheric electrons producing a two-temperature plasma. The plasma sheet component has been shown by several researchers to have kappa distribution character rather than Manxwellian. The kappa distribution function is characterized by a Maxwellian-like core distribution with a hotter tail. We show theory and observations of the interpretation of Langmuir sweep data for the case of a kappa distribution background that suggest that the cold ionospheric plasma is also better characterized by a kappa distribution at these altitudes. We also examine the effects of these distributions on the acceleration of electrons by propagating Alfven waves.
DE: 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704)
DE: 2427 Ionosphere/atmosphere interactions (0335)
DE: 2467 Plasma temperature and density
DE: 2704 Auroral phenomena (2407)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly