Heating rate of thermal electrons by the fast part of EDF in the ionosphere

Abstract

An alternative conclusion to the work of W. R. Hoegy [“Thermal electron heating rate: A derivation,” J. Geophys. Res. 89(A2), 977–985 (1984)] is presented, and rigorous analytical expressions for heating thermal Maxwellian electrons by the fast part of the energy distribution function (EDF) with an arbitrary dependence on energy are obtained. This makes the calculation of thermal electron heating under specific conditions possible, as well as scaling the obtained results. For the most convenient bi-Maxwell approximation of the EDF, comparatively simple analytical expressions for heating, convenient for practical calculations, are obtained. It has been shown that these expressions are in good agreement with the results of the fundamental Hoegy's work. Analytical expressions for heating thermal electrons by fast electrons, with a power-law distribution dependence on energy, are also presented.