Upward high-energy field-aligned electron beams above the polar edge of auroral oval: observations from the SKA-3 instruments onboard the Auroral Probe (Interball-2)

A new phenomenon was found at the polar edge of the auroral oval in the postmidnight-morning sectors: field-aligned (FA) high-energy upward electron beams in the energy range 20–40 keV at altitudes about 3 RE, accompanied by bidirectional electron FA beams of keV energy. The beam intensity often reaches more than 0.5 · 103 electrons/s · sr · keV · cm2, and the beams are observed for a relatively long time (∼3 ∼ 102–103 s), when the satellite at the apogee moves slowly in the ILAT-MLT frame. A qualitative scenario of the acceleration mechanism is proposed, according to which the satellite is within a region of bidirectional acceleration where a stochastic FA acceleration is accomplished by waves with fluctuating FA electric field components in both directions.