SM023-08
Statistical Properties of Electron Curtain Precipitation Estimated with AeroCube-6

Thursday, 10 December 2020: 10:58
Virtual
Mykhaylo Shumko1, Arlo Johnson2, T. Paul O'Brien3, Drew L. Turner4, Ashley D D Greeley5, John Glen Sample2, J Bernard Blake6, Lauren W Blum7 and Alexa Jean Halford8, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States, (3)The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA, United States, (4)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (5)Catholic University of America, physics, Washington, DC, United States, (6)The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (7)University of Colorado Bouler, LASP, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)Aerospace Corporation Chantilly, Chantilly, VA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Curtain precipitation is a recently discovered stationary, persistent, and latitudinally narrow electron precipitation phenomenon in low Earth orbit. Curtains are observed over consecutive passes of the dual AeroCube-6 CubeSats while their in-track lag varied from a fraction of a second to 65 seconds, with dosimeters that are sensitive to >30 keV electrons. This study uses the AeroCube-6 mission to quantify the statistical properties of 1,634 curtains observed over three years. We found that many curtains are narrower than 10 kilometers in the latitudinal direction with 90% narrower than 20 kilometers, corresponding to a few hundred kilometer radial size at the magnetic equator. We examined the magnetic local time and geomagnetic dependence of curtains. We found that curtains are observed in the late-morning and pre-midnight magnetic local times, with a higher occurrence rate at pre-midnight, and curtains are observed more often during times of enhanced Auroral Electrojet. Lastly, we will present our findings regarding what physical mechanisms are responsible for curtain precipitation.
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