Modeling of Anomalous Electron Heating and Comparisons to PFISR Observations

We present a new semi-empirical AEH model to predict the anomalous electron heating in auroral E region. The model’s output is compared to 78 anomalous heating events identified from 14 years of Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) data; good agreement is found between modeled and observed electron temperatures across a wide range of electric fields. Our model combines a heuristic nonlinear saturation model to estimate the parallel turbulent electric field with a simplified Boltzmann equation to calculate the heating generate by the aforementioned turbulent field while capturing the influence of non-Maxwellian electron distributions on heating. Unlike previous methods that blend Boltzmann and fluid energy equations, our model uses only the Boltzmann equation to solve for electron temperature self-consistently.
The observational database used in the study is obtained through designing and using a novel algorithm for automatic detection of anomalous electron heating (AEH) events using data from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR). The algorithm considers both E‐region electron temperature and magnetically conjugate electric field measurements. Application of this algorithm to 14 years of PFISR data spanning 2010 through 2023 detected 505 AEH events. Statistical survey has also been conducted to find the correlation between AEH occurrence and geomagnetic activity.