This publication addresses the collisional superthermal electron dynamics below the auroral acceleration region (AAR). This region is the portion of an auroral field line with a field‐aligned electric field that leads to the formation of precipitating monoenergetic keV electron fluxes that produce the discrete auroral displays observable from the ground. It is assumed that these precipitating electron fluxes are monoenergetic and accelerated through a potential drop, V, such that these electrons are peaked at an energy E₀ = eV, where e is the electron charge. Monoenergetic electrons precipitating into the upper atmosphere degrade to lower energies via many different collisional processes and produce the secondary electron population with energies of 10–100s eV which escapes back to magnetospheric altitudes and becomes geomagnetically trapped between the AAR and the upper ionosphere. The secondary electrons in this geomagnetic trap transfer energy via elastic Coulomb collisions to the thermal electrons. That energy is then returned to the topside ionosphere as heat flux carried by the electron thermal conduction which is essential to maintaining the topside electron temperature.

中文翻译：

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极光加速区域以下的地磁陷阱中的电子能量相互作用

该出版物讨论了极光加速区域（AAR）以下的碰撞超热电子动力学。该区域是极光场线中具有与电场对准的电场的部分，该电场导致形成沉淀的单能keV电子通量，从而产生可从地面观察到的离散的极光显示。假定这些沉淀的电子通量是单能的，并且通过电势降V加速，因此这些电子在能量E ₀  = e V处达到峰值，其中e是电子电荷。沉淀到高层大气中的单能电子会通过许多不同的碰撞过程降解为较低的能量，并产生能量为10–100s eV的二次电子种群，这些二次电子逃逸回磁层高度，并被地磁俘获在AAR和高层电离层之间。该地磁陷阱中的二次电子通过弹性库仑碰撞将能量传递给热电子。然后，该能量作为电子热传导所携带的热通量返回至顶侧电离层，这对于维持顶侧电子温度至关重要。