SATELLITE SCINTILLATION AT HIGH LATITUDES AND ITS POSSIBLE RELATION TO PRECIPITATION OF SOFT PARTICLES

Results of a study of satellite scintillation on 40 MHz as observed from a station on Spitsbergen (78.06°N, 13.63°E) are presented. There is a polar region giving rise to scintillation that has a southern boundary at L ~ 16 during magnetically quiet days, and expands at night and during magnetically disturbed conditions to L < 6. Within this region there is no systematic dependence of scintillation depth on Kp time of day or position. The fading rate increases with increasing fading depth. A simple model whereby ionospheric irregularities are produced by the irregular ionization produced by spatially varying particle precipitation is considered. To produce the observed ionosphere irregularities rms spatial variations of 1011 particles (m-2 sec-1) at 1 keV, with scale of the order 1 km is necessary. The very few available satellite observations do not preclude the possibility of such variations. © 1969.