SM51D-2590
A Comparison of Auroral In-Situ Rocket Electron Measurements and Ground-Based Multi-spectral EMCCD Imaging
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Guy Alan Grubbs II, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, Marilia Samara, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Robert Michell, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, Donald Hampton, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute, Fairbanks, AK, United States and James H Hecht, Aerospace Corporation Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Abstract:
The Ground-to-Rocket Electrodynamics-Electrons Correlative Experiment (GREECE) mission successfully launched from Poker Flat, Alaska on 03 March 2014 at 11:09:50 UT and reached an apogee of approximately 335 km during a luminous auroral event. Multiple ground-based electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) imagers were positioned at Venetie, Alaska and aimed along magnetic zenith in order to observe the brightness of different auroral emission lines (427.8, 557.7, and 844.6 nm with a 47 degree field of view) at the magnetic footpoint of the payload, near apogee. Emission line brightness data are presented at the footpoint of the rocket flight and compared with electron characteristics taken by the Acute Precipitating Electron Spectrometer (APES) on-board instrument. Ratios of different auroral emission lines are combined with previously published models in order to estimate the characteristic energy of the incident electron population, which is directly compared to the APES data for validation. Our goal is to describe the auroral emissions produced from a known precipitating electron distribution, such that we can more accurately use ground-based imaging and photometry to infer the characteristics of the precipitating electrons. These techniques can then be applied over larger scales and longer times, when only multi-spectral imaging data are available with no corresponding in situ data.
