Conjugate photoelectron energy spectra derived from coincident FUV and
radio measurements
Abstract
We present a method for estimating incident photoelectrons’ energy
spectra as a function of altitude by combining global scale
far-ultraviolet (FUV) and radio-occultation (RO) measurements. This
characterization provides timely insights important for accurate
interpretation of ionospheric parameters inferred from the recently
launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) observations.
Quantification of photoelectron impact is enabled by the fact that
conjugate photoelectrons (CPEs) directly affect FUV airglow emissions
but not RO measurements. We demonstrate the technique for the estimation
of photoelectron fluxes and their spectra by combining coincident
ICON-FUV and COSMIC2 measurements and show that a significant fraction
of ICON-FUV measurements are affected by CPEs during the winter
solstice. A comparison of estimated photoelectron fluxes with the
SAMI2-PE model is used to gain further insights into the estimation
method and reveals consistent values at low latitudes, while the results
suggest that the model might be overestimating photoelectron fluxes by
$\sim$10\% at mid latitudes.