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Abstract. Energetic electrons can penetrate into the middle atmosphere causing excitation, dissociation, and ionization of neutral constituents, resulting in chemical changes. In this paper, representative electron spectra measured by the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite particle environment monitor are used to determine the relative contributions of bremsstrahlung X rays and direct electron impact on the energy deposition and ionization production rates for altitudes between 20 and 150 km. Above 50 km most of the ionization comes from direct electron impact. However, in the stratosphere the energy contributed below 50 km is mostly due to bremsstrahlung X rays. In the diffuse aurora the ionization from the bremsstrahlung component exceeds that due to the galactic cosmic ray background to altitudes as low as 30 km during geomagnetically active periods. This paper demonstrates that a diffuse auroral source can input as much or more energy into the upper portion of the lower and middle atmosphere as previously reported for relativistic electron events. The effects of the diffuse aurora (including both the direct electron and the bremsstrahlung contributions) on atmospheric chemistry may be significant.

We report the first satellite observations of relativistic (>1 MeV) electron precipitation in microbursts with measured durations of less than 1 s. Microbursts of lower-energy electrons (10-100 keV) have been found to occur preferentially in the early daylight hours and to be closely associated with VLF chorus emissions. In contrast, the relativistic electron microbursts occurred more frequently near 2230 LT than 1030 LT, and no association was found with ELF/VLF chorus, consistent with the fact that resonant interactions with --• 1-MeV electrons require significantly lower frequencies. The available data on these relativistic microbursts thus appear to indicate that many of the bursts may be due to wave-particle interaction not with whistler mode chorus but possibly with other waveforms. The locations of many of the relativistic microbursts are concentrated at the outer edge of the trapped radiation belt, where the gyroradii of the electrons are comparable to the curvature of the magnetic field lines and stable trapping may therefore not occur. The preferred location of the microbursts, which may be primarily spatial in character, implies the possible importance of irregularities in the magnetic field lines near the trapping boundary as the responsible mechanism. 13,829 13,830 IMHOF ET AL.' RELATIVISTIC ELECTRON MICROBURSTS

An investigation has been made of electron and associated ion precipitation spikes near the plasmapause that are narrow in L shell and in which relativistic electrons are favored. The electron energy spectra during the spikes sometimes had equivalent e fold energies in excess of 500 keV. In approximately 31% of these spike events observed from the low‐altitude polar orbiting satellites P72‐1, P78‐1, and S81‐1, nearly simultaneous precipitation was measured in energetic ions above ∼30 keV at about the same L value. Several of the precipitation spikes occurred primarily in the drift loss cone, but in some cases, significant precipitation (∼10−2 ergs/cm² s) was also observed in the bounce loss cone. The electron spikes occurred preferentially in the evening sector, and all of the associated narrow ion spikes were in that local time interval. Narrow relativistic electron spikes were observed on less than 1% of the crossings of the plasmapause. From the set of S81‐1 events a search was made for those also observed on the NOAA 6 spacecraft. On rare occasions, nearly simultaneous (<2000 s) narrow spikes with hard electron spectra were found at approximately the same L value from both spacecraft and at longitudes differing by 8°–47°. These findings suggest a patchy profile, sometimes with an arc structure which may extend over longitude intervals as great as 25° and time intervals as long as 2000 s. From consideration of the AE index for 17 events, 12 were found to occur close to the times of substorms. The spike precipitation is interpreted in terms of cyclotron resonance wave‐particle interactions involving radiation belt particles, the narrow widths being associated with fine structure in the cold plasma density profiles near the plasmapause and the energy selectivity associated with an upper frequency cutoff in the waves.

Radiation belt electrons precipitated by controlled injection of VLF signals from a ground based transmitter have been directly observed for the first time. These observations were part of the SEEP (Stimulated Emission of Energetic Particles) experiment conducted during May ‐ December 1982. Key elements of SEEP were the controlled modulation of VLF transmitters and a sensitive low altitude satellite payload to detect the precipitation. An outstanding example of time‐correlated wave and particle data occurred from 8680 to 8740 seconds U.T. on 17 August 1982 when the satellite passed near the VLF transmitter at Cutler, Maine (NAA) as it was being modulated with a repeated ON (3‐s)/OFF (2‐s) pattern. During each of twelve consecutive pulses from the transmitter the electron counting rate increased significantly after start of the ON period and reached a maximum about 2 seconds later. The measured energy spectra revealed that approximately 15 to 50 percent of the enhanced electron flux was concentrated near the resonant energies for first order cyclotron interactions occurring close to the magnetic equator with the nearly monochromatic waves emitted from the transmitter.