Can relativistic electrons be accelerated in the geomagnetic tail region?

  • Lee, J.J. (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Parks, G.K. (SSL, UC Berkeley) ;
  • Min, K.W. (Dept. Physics, KAIST) ;
  • Lee, E.S. (SSL, UC Berkeley) ;
  • McCarthy, M.P. (University of Washington) ;
  • Hwang, J.A. (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Lee, C.N. (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)
  • 발행 : 2008.10.22

초록

While some observations in the geomagnetic tail region supported electrons could be accelerated by reconnection processes, we still need more observation data to confirm electron acceleration in this region. Because most acceleration processes accompany strong pitch angle diffusion, if the electrons were accelerated in this region, strong energetic electron precipitation should be observed near earth on aurora oval. Even though there are several low altitude satellites observing electron precipitation, intense and small scale precipitation events have not been identified successfully. In this presentation, we will show an observation of strong energetic electron precipitation that might be analyzed by relativistic electron acceleration in the confined region. This event was observed by low altitude Korean STSAT-1, where intense several hundred keV electron precipitation was seen simultaneously with 10 keV electrons during storm time. In addition, we observed large magnetic field fluctuations and an ionospheric plasma depletion with FUV aurora emissions. Our observation implies relativistic electrons can be generated in the small area where Fermi acceleration might work.

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