CEDAR Post-Doc: The Electron Energy Balance over Millstone Hill Using Combined Optical and Incoherent Scatter Measurements

这项博士后资助通过结合光学和非相干散射测量来研究电离层电子的热平衡。他将利用CEDAR在磨石山天文台开发的仪器完成地面观测的测量。光学测量补充了正在进行的CEDAR NETE活动，并旨在提供共轭半球光电子通量信息。这种光电子的通量是夜间电离层中热电子的热源。因此，共轭半球光电子通量的光学测量将为电离层行为的雷达研究提供重要的约束。此外，他将对米尔斯顿山夜间电子温度和密度增强的机制进行建模研究。磁场线半球间等离子体（FLIP）模型计算了从一个半球到另一个半球80公里以上的等离子体密度和温度。要解决的建模的一个方面是通过电离层电子的俯仰角捕获的等离子层加热，这是通过假设在等离子层捕获的光电子的一小部分将其全部能量沉积在那里来估计的。正在进行的雷达测量加上提出的基于地面的光电子通量光学测量将限制对被困在等离子层中的光电子比例的估计。

This post-doctoral grant examines the thermal balance of ionospheric electrons through combining optical and incoherent scatter measurements. He will accomplish measurements with ground-based observations that utilize CEDAR developed instrumentation at Millstone Hill Observatory. Optical measurements supplement the ongoing CEDAR NETE campaign, and are designed to provide conjugate hemisphere photoelectron flux information. This flux of photoelectrons is the heat source for thermal electrons in the nighttime ionosphere. Hence, optical measurements of the conjugate hemisphere photoelectron flux will provide an important constraint for the radar investigation of ionospheric behavior. In addition, he will perform a modeling study of mechanisms responsible for enhanced nighttime electron temperature and densities over Millstone Hill. The Field Line Interhemispheric Plasma (FLIP) model calculates plasma density and temperature above 80 km from one hemisphere to another. One aspect of the modeling to be addressed is plasmaspheric heating through pitch angle trapping of ionospheric electrons, which is estimated by assuming a fraction of the photoelectrons trapped in the plasmasphere depositing a whole of their energy there. Ongoing radar measurements coupled with the proposed ground-based optical measurements of photoelectron flux will constrain this estimate of the fraction of photoelectrons trapped in the plasmasphere.