Abstract
Abstract. Electron temperature in the sporadic E layer was measured with a glass-sealed Langmuir probe at a mid-latitude station in Japan in the framework of the SEEK (Sporadic E Experiment over Kyushu)-2 campaign which was conducted in August 2002. Important findings are two fold: (1) electron temperature and electron density vary in the opposite sense in the height range of 100–108 km, and electron temperature in the Es layer is lower than that of ambient plasma, (2) electron temperature in these height ranges is higher than the possible range of neutral temperature. These findings strongly suggest that the heat source that elevates electron temperature much higher than possible neutral temperature exists at around 100 km, and/or that the physical parameter values, which are used in the present theory to calculate electron temperature, are not proper.
Highlights
To measure electron temperature (Te) inside sporadic E (Es) is a difficult task because sounding rockets go through thin layer(s) where electron density changes very fast
The v-i characteristic curve of the Langmuir probe is distorted by the spinning of the rocket and/or by the irregular electron density structure if the probe sweep bias is not fast enough
Te outside was 550 K at 106.5 km and 111.5 km, which means that Te inside Es was about 30 K lower than the ambient plasma
Summary
Y. Liu1 1Institute of Space Science, National Central University, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli, Taiwan 2Institute of Space and Astronautical Science/Japan Space Exploration Agency, 3-1-1, Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Japan 3National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 4-2-1, Nukui-kitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. Received: 31 July 2007 – Revised: 17 December 2007 – Accepted: 17 January 2008 – Published: 26 March 2008
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