Citation
Martínez-Sánchez, Manuel and Sanmartín Losada, Juan Ramón
(1995).
An extended electron beam for auroral studies.
In: "4th International Conference on Tethers in Space", 10-14 apr 1995, Washington.
Abstract
An electrically floating metallic bare tether in a low Earth orbit would be highly negative with respect to the ambient plasma over most of its length, and would be bombarded by ambient ions. This would liberate secondary
electrons, which, after acceleration through the same voltage, would form a magnetically guided two-sided planar e-beam. Upon impact on the atmospheric E-layer, at about 120-140 Km altitude auroral effects (ionization and light emission) can be expected. This paper examines in a preliminary way the feasibility of using this effect as an upper atmospheric probe. It is concluded that significant perturbations can be produced along the illuminated planar sheet of the atmosphere, with ionization rates of several
thousand cm-3 sec1. Observation of the induced optical emission is made difficult by the narrowness and high moving speed of the illuminated zone, but it is shown that vertical resolution of single spectral lines is possible, as is wider spectral coverage with no vertical resolution.