Empirical model of SSUSI-derived auroral ionization rates

Abstract

We present an empirical model for auroral (90--150 km) electron--ion pair production rates, ionization rates for short, derived from SSUSI (Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager) electron energy and flux data. Using the Fang et al., 2010 parametrization for mono-energetic electrons, and the NRLMSISE-00 neutral atmosphere model, the calculated ionization rate profiles are binned in 2-h magnetic local time (MLT) and 3.6${}^{\circ }$ geomagnetic latitude to yield time series of ionization rates at 5-km altitude steps. We fit each of these time series to the geomagnetic indices Kp, PC, and Ap, the 81-day averaged solar F${}_{\text{10.7}}$ radio flux index, and a constant term. The resulting empirical model can easily be incorporated into coupled chemistry--climate models to include particle precipitation effects.

15 pages, 6 figures, published in Earth and Space Science

References in corpus (2)

• Energetic electron precipitation into the middle atmosphere - Constructing the loss cone fluxes from MEPED POES
• Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data