SM009-06
Comparisons of Energetic Electron Precipitation between FIREBIRD-II and POES Observations

Monday, 7 December 2020: 17:45
Virtual
Isabella M Householder1, Katharine Duderstadt1, Chia-Lin Huang1, J Bernard Blake2, Alexander B Crew3, Arlo Johnson4, David M Klumpar4, Timothy Raeder1, John Glen Sample4, Mykhaylo Shumko5, Sonya S Smith1 and Harlan E. Spence1, (1)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (2)The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (3)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (4)Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Abstract:
Precipitating electrons from the Van Allen Radiation Belts impact the physical and chemical properties of the upper atmosphere; yet, the electron flux is not well quantified. Electron flux into the atmosphere is observed by the recent Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics (FIREBIRD-II) CubeSat mission which provides high energy resolution for electron flux in polar low Earth orbit. This study performs a detailed comparison of energetic electron flux between the FIREBIRD-II CubeSats (FIREBIRD-3 and FIREBIRD-4) and several Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) during spacecraft conjunction times. The POES satellites (NOAA-15, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, MetOp-1B, MetOp-2A) have excellent spatial and temporal coverage and are equipped with the Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector (MEPED), which has a lower energy resolution than FIREBIRD. In general, FIREBIRD-II and MEPED observations show good agreement, with FIREBIRD electron flux generally between the POES 0 and 90 degree telescope values. FIREBIRD-II and POES electron observations are also studied with respect to hemisphere, L-shell, and geomagnetic activity. This comparison will provide valuable information for studying the FIREBIRD-II dataset as well as insight for understanding electron precipitation that affects the atmosphere.
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