Evidence for Beam-Stimulated Precipitation of High Energy Electrons

Abstract

The interaction of artificial and natural electron beams with the ionosphere and magnetosphere has been observed to give rise to a rich variety of phenomena. Most of the work on this topic has concentrated on the interaction of a beam with the ambient thermal plasma, on plasma wave generation near a beam source, etc. Relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of a beam on the distant magnetosphere, and on high energy particles. This paper will discuss two observations in which an electron beam apparently stimulated the precipitation of high energy electrons from the deep magnetosphere. These observations were made by the UH Group in conjunction with two active magnetospheric experiments, the first Araks experiment on January 26, 1975 (Roeder et al., 1980 (paper 1)) and the Trigger experiment on February 11, 1977. (Bering, et al., 1980 (paper 2)). In both cases, the data were obtained from rocket-boosted, parachute-borne X ray bremsstrahlung detectors which were initially deployed of an altitude of 80 km near the foot of the flux tubes affected by each experiment.