VELOCITY-SPACE DISTRIBUTIONS OF WAVE-ACCELERATED AURORAL ELECTRONS

The possibility that auroral electrons might be accelerated by electrostatic wave turbulence is further explored. Electron velocity distributions resulting from lower hybrid wave turbulence are modeled as functions of velocities parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic vector. The model,which is highly stylized with focus on the underlying physics, is found to account readily for the wide range of experimentally observed features such as ''beams,'' ''conics,'' and ''widened loss cones.'' Consideration of the energetics of the process leads to the suggestion that the acceleration may be essentially a plasma boundary phenomenon.