Global‐scale electron precipitation features seen in UV and X rays during substorms

Abstract

The Polar Ionospheric X‐ray Imaging Experiment (PIXIE) and the ultraviolet imager (UVI) onboard the Polar satellite have provided the first simultaneous global‐scale views of the patterns of electron precipitation through imaging of the atmospheric X‐ray bremsstrahlung and the auroral ultraviolet (UV) emissions. While the UV images respond to the total electron energy flux, which is usually dominated by electron energies below 10 keV, the PIXIE, 9.9–19.7 keV X‐ray images used in this study respond only to electrons of energy above 10 keV. Previous studies by ground‐based, balloon, and space observations have indicated that the patterns of energetic electron precipitation differ significantly from those found in the visible and the UV auroral oval. Because of the lack of global imaging of the energetic electron precipitation, one has not been able to establish a complete picture. In this study the development of the electron precipitation during the different phases of magnetospheric substorms is examined. Comparisons are made between the precipitation patterns of the high‐energy (PIXIE) and low‐energy (UVI) electron populations, correlated with ground‐based observations and geosynchronous satellite data. We focus on one specific common feature in the energetic precipitation seen in almost every isolated substorm observed by PIXIE during 1996 and which differs significantly from what is seen in the UV images. Delayed relative to substorm onsets, we observe a localized maximum of X‐ray emission at 5–9 magnetic local time. By identifying the location of the injection region and determining the substorm onset time it is found that this maximum most probably is caused by electrons injected in the midnight sector drifting (i.e., gradient and curvature drift) into a region in the dawnside magnetosphere where some mechanism effectively scatters the electrons into the loss cone.