DESIGN AND CALIBRATION OF A ROCKET-BORNE ELECTRON SPECTROMETER FOR INVESTIGATION OF PARTICLE IONIZATION IN THE NIGHTTIME MULTITUDE E REGION

摘要

An explanation is developed for the formation, near midnight at multitudes, of a broad electron-density layer extending approximately from 120 to 180 km and usually referred to as the intermediate 5 layer. The responsible mechanism is believed to be converging vertical ion drifts resulting from winds of the (2, 4) - mode of the solar semidiurnal tide. Numerical solutions of the continuity equation appropriate to the intermediate layer are described for particular models of ion drift, diffusion coefficients and ionization production. Analysis of rocket observations of the layers shows that the ionization rate is highly correlated with the planetary geomagnetic index, KPa. Particle flux measurements support the idea that energetic electrons are the principal source of this ionization. A semiconductor spectrometer experiment for investigation of the particle flux, spectrum, and angular properties was designed and successfully flown on a Nike Apache rocket.