There are significant uncertainties in the calculation of photometric and ionization masses of meteors, particularly those derived from meteor head echoes observed by high power, large aperture radars. Simultaneous observations of meteors with the EISCAT UHF tristatic system and narrow field two-station intensified video were conducted in October 2007; 11 hours of data produced four useful meteors observed on all three radar receivers and both cameras. The positions and speeds calculated on the two systems generally agree to within the observational uncertainty. The photometric and ionization masses for each meteor were calculated using several values of luminous efficiency and ionization probability from literature, and all of these masses were found to agree to within the estimated error in the methods. More observations are required to select among the various values of ionization coefficient and luminous efficiency. / <p>Ytterligare finansiär NASA för den kanadensiska delen</p> / meteor

Sporadic-E layers (Es) are layers of metallic ions that appear in the lower E-region of the ionosphere and can last from under one hour to several hours. Es are found at all latitudes, but polar cap Es, and specifically over Svalbard at a latitude of around 78◦ , are the focus of this study. Data is provided from several instruments: the EISCAT Svalbard Dynasonde, the EISCAT Svalbard Incoherent Scatter Radar (ESR), SuperDARN, and modelled data from the latest Horizontal Wind Model (HWM14). Data on the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) is acquired from the NASA OMNIWeb data base. It is found that polar cap Es are a summer phenomenon, confined to the later afternoon to a couple of hours after midnight in universal time (UT), with a peak occurrence between 18-21 UT. The layer heights are mostly confined to ∼92-120 km, although there is a discrepancy between Es found in ESR data and Dynasonde data, with ESR events being confined to 92-110 km, and Dynasonde events to 95-120 km. It is also found that Es occurrence is dependent on Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) direction, with a higher occurrence during a southward and eastward IMF. The Dynasonde automatic signal processing of echoes is found to be unreliable at times with intense E-region density enhancements, such as Es. From a Superposed Epoch Analysis (SEA) on Es found in ESR data, it is found that there is a density buildup from the start of the events, peaking by 30 % of the Es lifetime, that is followed by fading at a slower rate until the end of the layer lifetime. Layer thickness is found to be largely confined to &lt;9 km. From SuperDARN E-field data it is found that layers can form and migrate downwards to low altitudes for a strictly northward E-field. ’Flat’, low altitude layers are found during E-field directions in both the southwest and northwest quadrants. Some cases of Es formation and migration fit current theories and whilst some does not. Indications of particle precipitation that induce layer formation is found. / Sporadiska E-skikt (Es) är lager av metalliska joner som uppträder i den nedre delen av jonosfärens E-region, och kan pågå från under en timme till flera timmar. Es återfinns på alla breddgrader, men Es i polarområdet, och specifikt över Svalbard på en latitud av cirka 78◦ , är fokuset för denna studie. Data tillhandahålls från flera instrument: EISCAT Svalbard Dynasonde, EISCAT Svalbard Incoherent Scatter Radar (ESR), SuperDARN och modellerade data från en updaterad modell för horisontella neutrala vindar (HWM14). Data om det interplanetära magnetfältet (IMF) hämtas från NASAs OMNIWeb databas. Det visas att Es i polarområdet är ett sommarfenomen, begränsat till mellan eftermiddagen och ett par timmar efter midnatt i universell tid (UT), med en toppförekomst mellan 18-21 UT. Höjd för skikten är mestadels begränsade till ∼92-120 km, men det finns en diskrepans mellan Es funna ur ESR-data och Dynasonde-data, med fallen från ESR data begränsade till 92-110 km och fall från Dynasonde-datan till 95-120 km. Det visas också att Es-förekomsten är beroende av det interplanetära magnetfältets (IMF) riktning, med en högre förekomst under IMF riktat söderut och österut. Dynasondens automatiska signalbehandling av ekon visas vara opålitlig under intensiva förhöjningar i E-regionens densitet, såsom är fallet vid sporadiska E-skikt. Genom en ’Superposed Epoch Analysis’ (SEA) som genoförs för de Es som lokaliseras i ESR-datan, visar det sig att det finns en densitetsuppbyggnad från början av Es fallen, med en densitetstopp vid 30 % av Es-livslängden, som sedan följs av en långsammare avtrappning tills skiktet helt dött ut. Skikttjockleken visar sig vara i stort sett begränsad till &lt;9 km. Ur E-fältdata från SuperDARN visar det sig att lager kan bildas och migrera nedåt, till låga höjder för ett nordligt riktat E-fält. ’Platta’ skikt på låg höjd återfinns under E-fältsriktningar i både sydvästra och nordvästra kvadranten. Vissa fall med Es formation och migration följer teorin på området medan andra fall inte gör det. Det finns vissa indikationer på att partikelprecipitation kan inducera skiktbildning.

It has been shown in previous studies that at 110 km altitude, the electron temperature can be quite large in the presence of strong electric fields. This thesis explores the possibility of deviations from the normal trends in the high latitude E-region electron heating in reaction to strong electric fields. The study is based on data from the EISCAT Incoherent Scatter Radar during the International Polar Year. Out of a large number of possibilities (the radar operated essentially on a continuous basis for a year) only seven events proved to have sufficiently strong electric fields and large enough plasma densities to be characterized as ‘good heating events’. The electron temperature enhancements in these events, at 110 km, were several hundred K above from the background temperature and correlated well with ion temperature at 150 km altitude. The results for these good events agreed very well with past studies, aside from the smaller starting temperatures which were likely connected to the quiet solar conditions at the time. This stated, a different type of E region electron heating event was identified. In that case the E region electron densities were small (night-time conditions free of electron precipitation) and the electron temperatures reached a maximum near 150 km altitude. In those events the electron temperature enhancements extended down to the lower altitudes, introducing small, but detectable, electron temperature enhancements all the way down to 105 km altitude. .

Aurora occurs in various shapes, one of which is the hitherto unreported phenomenon of auroral fragments. For three periods of occurrence of these fragments their properties were studied in detail during this master’s thesis, using mainly ground-based instrumentation located near Longyearbyen on Svalbard, Norway. A base dataset was constructed from 103 all-sky camera images, manually marking 305 fragments for further analysis. This thesis reports and describes the fragment observations during the observed events, including the auroral and geomagnetic context. Fragments generally seem to fall into two categories, the first being singular, apparently randomly distributed fragments, and the second being periodic fragments that occur in groups with a regular spacing close to auroral arcs. A typical fragment has a small horizontal size below 20 km, a short lifetime of less than a minute and shows no field-aligned extent in the emission. The fragments appear mainly west of zenith (73%) during the three observation nights, whereas their north-south distribution is symmetric around the zenith. Almost all of them exhibit westward drift, the estimated speed for one of the fragments passing the field of view of ASK is ∼1 km/s. A spectral signature can be seen in the green auroral wavelength of O at 557.7 nm and red emission line of N2 at 673.0 nm, but no emission enhancement was observed in the blue wavelengths. One fragment passing the EISCAT Svalbard radar’s field of view shows a local ion temperature increase in a small altitude range of ∼15 km, whereas there is no visible increase in electron density. This could be explained by fragment generation due to locally strong horizontal electric fields. A potential mechanism for this might be electric fields of atmospheric waves superposing with the converging electric fields of auroral arcs created by particle precipitation and the corresponding field-aligned currents. The resulting field would be perpendicular to the magnetic field and the auroral arcs, leading to wave-like density variations of excited plasma close to the arcs. Further study is required to verify this hypothesis and improve the understanding of fragment properties determined from the limited dataset used for this thesis.

Observations of modifications of the electron temperature in the F-region produced by powerful high-frequency waves transmitted in X-mode are presented. The experiments were performed during quiet nighttime conditions with low ionospheric densities so no reflections occurred. Nevertheless temperature enhancements of the order of 300-400K were obtained. The modifications found can be well described by the theory of Ohmic heating by the pump wave and both temporal and spatial changes are reproduced.  A brief overview of several different experimental campaigns at EISCAT facilities in the period from October 2006 to February 2008 are also given pointing out some interesting features from the different experiments. The main focus is then on the campaign during October 2006 and modifications of the electron temperature in the F-region.

There was a large radar campaign during 2007 and 2008, the International Polar Year (IPY),and at that time the EISCAT Svalbard Radar was operated and measured the ionosphere continuouslyat most times. This report presents statistical results from an electron enhancementpoint of view. Until now there has been some research into the field and results based on theions in the ionosphere, and the enhancements we refer to as Naturally enhanced ion acousticlines (NEIALs). Plasma line data from May 2007 to February 2008 has been analysed inorder to find and classify enhancements as NEIALs have been classified but with respect tothe electron distribution instead of the ion distribution. A method of detection was developedin order to differentiate the enhancements from the background with a relation between theminimum and maximum power of each measured dump. Results show that there is a largedifference between the downshifted plasma lines and the upshifted plasma lines, both has arange distribution peak at 180 km and the upshifted plasma line has another peak at 230 kmwhich the downshifted plasma line does not. The occurrence rate of the enhancements was1.64 % for the downshifted plasma line and 4.69 % for the upshifted plasma line. Threedifferent types of enhancements are classified using the variance distribution for the peakfrequency of that detected dump, Single, Profile, and Diffuse. The Single enhancements havea bit different spectral, range, and time of day distributions than of the Profile and Diffusedistributions. The Diffuse classifications are mostly wrong classifications and aliasing and itis very similar to Profile enhancements as seen by its distribution.

Ce travail présente une étude des raies de plasma observées à l'aide du radar à diffusion incohérente EISCAT. Le travail est centré sur deux points. Tout d'abord, la conception d'une expérience raies de plasma pour le radar EISCAT, avec une résolution spatiale améliorée. Puis, la comparaison de données raies de plasma acquises avec le radar EISCAT avec une théorie améliorée sur l'intensité et le décalage Doppler en fréquence des raies de plasma. Pour améliorer la résolution spatiale, nous avons conçu la première expérience raies de plasma mettant en oeuvre la technique du code alternatif. Cette expérience a été tournée avec succès avec une résolution spatiale de 3 km au lieu de 40-50 km obtenu avec les techniques conventionnelles. Parce qu'il est très difficile de construire un modèle cohérent de la fonction de distribution des vitesses des électrons satisfaisant tous les intervalles d'énergies pertinents, nous avons construit une représentation adéquate de la distribution des vitesses des électrons en séparant la distribution en deux populations : la thermique et la suprathermique. La population thermique est représentée par la fonction de Spitzer qui tient compte de l'effet d'un champ électrique et/ou d'un gradient de température. La population suprathermique est déduite du flux angulaire d'énergie calculé grâce à un modèle numérique du transport des électrons. Un code numérique a été développé pour calculer la fonction diélectrique et la fonction réduite de distribution des vitesses pour toutes distributions des vitesses à deux dimensions dont nous avons besoin pour modéliser l'intensité et le décalage Doppler en fréquence des raies de plasma. Nous avons pu reproduire les caractéristiques de l'intensité et du décalage Doppler en fréquence des raies de plasma avec des données mesurées avec le radar VHF EISCAT. En particulier, nous avons identifié deux pics étroits dans la distribution des vitesses des suprathermiques comme la signature de la photo-ionisation de N_2 et O. Ces pics ont été observés sur les données. L'effet d'un gradient de température - qui produit une correction importante au décalage Doppler des raies de plasma - a été pris en compte plus précisement que précédemment en calculant numériquement les intégrales singulières, au lieu d'utiliser les premiers termes d'une expansion en séries comme auparavant. C'est important car cela a permis pour la première fois à un modèle de reproduire précisément l'intensité et le décalage Doppler des raies de plasma mesurés par une expérience EISCAT.

平成24年度国立極地研究所研究集会「地上多点観測データの総合解析による超高層大気研究会」, 2012/08/10, 国立極地研究所（東京都）

Ce travail de thèse porte sur la modélisation des ionosphères planétaires comme celle de la Terre et de Titan à travers les processus de transport cinétique des électrons et des protons. La modélisation des ions doublement chargés N2++, O2++ et O++ créés par photoionisation a constitué la première étape de ce travail. Les résultats de la simulation sont comparés avec succès aux seules données disponibles sur Terre pour O++. De cette validation expérimentale, nous prédisons ainsi la présence d'ions moléculaires doublement chargés dans l'ionosphère de la Terre et de Titan. Dans un deuxième temps, nous détaillons la genèse du modèle d'ionosphère TRANS4, à travers le couplage et l'optimisation de différents codes de transport cinétique et fluide capables de modéliser simultanément les précipitations d'électrons et de protons. Ce modèle constitue un outil unique et cohérent de diagnostic de l'impact combiné des protons et des électrons sur l'ionosphère en permettant notamment le calcul des profils de raies Balmer de l'hydrogène. La comparaison aux données a permis ensuite une approche quantitative du comportement de l'ionosphère soumis à un événement actif proton-électrons, sous le triple angle des données radar, satellite et optique. Les perspectives sont nombreuses et le portage du code dans d'autres ionosphères telles Titan, Mars ou Vénus est une voie de recherche privilégiée, qui coïncide avec les mesures en direct des sondes Cassini, Mars Express et Vénus Express. Une collaboration étroite avec le Laboratoire de Chimie Physique (LCP, Orsay) ainsi qu'avec les universités d'Oslo et de Svalbard (UNIS) a été menée tout au long de ce travail.

The goal of this thesis is to improve our knowledge on energetic particle precipitation into the Earth’s atmosphere from the thermosphere to the surface. The particles origin from the Sun or from temporarily trapped populations inside the magnetosphere. The best documented influence of solar (high-) energetic particles on the atmosphere is the Ozone depletion in high latitudes, attributed to the generation of HOx and NOx by precipitating particles (Crutzen et al., 1975; Solomon et al., 1981; Reid et al., 1991). In addition Callis et al. (1996b, 2001) and Randall et al. (2005, 2006) point out the importance of low-energetic precipitating particles of magnetospheric origin, creating NOx in the lower thermosphere, which may be transported downwards where it also contributes to Ozone depletion. The incoming particle flux is dramatically changing as a function of auroral/geomagnetical activity and in particular during solar particle events. As a result, the degree of ionization and the chemical composition of the atmosphere are substantially affected by the state of the Sun. Therefore the direct energetic or dynamical influences of ions on the upper atmosphere depend on solar variability at different time scales. Influences on chemistry have been considered so far with simplified precipitation patterns, limited energy range and restrictions to certain particle species, see e.g. Jackman et al. (2000); Sinnhuber et al. (2003b, for solar energetic protons and no spatial differentiation), and Callis et al. (1996b, 2001, for magnetospheric electrons only). A comprehensive atmospheric ionization model with spatially resolved particle precipitation including a wide energy range and all main particle species as well as a dynamic magnetosphere was missing. In the scope of this work, a 3-D precipitation model of solar and magnetospheric particles has been developed. Temporal as well as spatial ionization patterns will be discussed. Apart from that, the ionization data are used in different climate models, allowing (a) simulations of NOx and HOx formation and transport, (b) comparisons to incoherent scatter radar measurements and (c) inter-comparison of the chemistry part in different models and comparison of model results to MIPAS observations. In a bigger scope the ionization data may be used to better constrain the natural sources of climate change or consequences for atmospheric dynamics due to local temperature changes by precipitating particles and their implications for chemistry. Thus the influence of precipitating energetic particles on the composition and dynamics of the atmosphere is a challenging issue in climate modeling. The ionization data is available online and can be adopted automatically to any user specific model grid.