scostep 2010 (stp12) - Leibniz-Institut für Atmosphärenphysik an der ...

STP12 Abstracts
Berlin, 12 - 16 July 2010
SCOSTEP Symposium 2010
The Geophysical Impacts and ENA Signatures of Ring Current Ion Precipitation into
the Thermosphere and Ionosphere
Pollock Craig 1 , Mackler David 2 , Mitchell Donald 3
1 2 3
Southwest Research Institute, University of Texas at San Antonio, Applied Physics Laboratory at
Johns Hopkins University
We present observations from NASA's IMAGE and TWINS missions of the intense ENA
emissions emanating from the foot points of geomagnetic field lines connected to the Earth's
ring current during geomagnetic storms. We describe analyses performed using these
observations to specify the spatial and pitch angle distributions of the emitted ENAs and
present the results of these. We also describe progress on an effort, recently begun, in which
in-situ observations of ion precipitation are analyzed and compared with simultaneous
observations of ENAs emitted from precipitation foot points, in order to estimate the
distribution of ENAs resulting from an element of ion precipitation. Finally, we describe
future observations that may be used to constrain the relationship between precipitating ions
and the resultant ENA signatures, with the ultimate goal of being able to specify the ion
precipitation using ENA observations.