High Altitude Plasma Instrument (HAPI) data analysis

Abstract

The objectives of the Dynamics Explorer mission are to investigate the coupling of energy, mass, and momentum among the earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and upper atmosphere. At launch, on August 3, 1981, DE-1 was placed into an elliptical polar orbit having an apogee of 23,130 km to allow global auroral imaging and crossings of auroral field lines at altitudes of several thousand kilometers. At the same time DE-2 was placed into a polar orbit, coplanar with that of DE-1 but with a perigee altitude low enough (309 km) for neutral measurements and an apogee altitude of 1012 km. The DE-1 High Altitude Plasma Instrument (HAPI) provided data on low and medium energy electrons and ions from August 13, 1981 until December 1, 1981, when a high-voltage failure occured. Analysis of HAPI data for the time period of this contract has produced new results on the source mechanisms for electron conical distributions, particle acceleration phenomena in auroral acceleration regions, Birkeland currents throughout the nightside auroral regions, the source region for auroral kilometric radiation (AKR), and plasma injection phenomena in the polar cusp.