| On May 6, 1993, a sounding rocket experiment designed to study microburst electron precipitation was launched from Poker Flat, Alaska, into a morningside auroral event. This was the first sounding rocket to simultaneously detect microburst electrons and associated very low frequency (VLF) waves. Both microbursts and narrow band VLF chorus (risers) were observed throughout the flight. Waves and electron bursts were observed in association with each other, but no one-to-one correlations were seen between the two phenomena. The association between waves and particles suggests that both phenomena may be produced by a wave-particle interaction. This dissertation discusses the design of the VLF wave antenna, a magnetic search coil, and the analysis of data from this instrument. The data are compared to chorus production theories to determine the source location and mechanism of the observed waves.; In this work, the observed chorus emissions are interpreted in terms of a cyclotron resonance interaction. This is the first comprehensive test of the cyclotron resonance theory applied to chorus associated with microburst precipitation. The frequency range of the risers and the observed electron energy range agree with those required to satisfy the cyclotron resonance condition. Using a criterion derived from the conservation of energy during an interaction, it is determined that a cold plasma cyclotron resonance interaction could have produced only the lower frequency portions of the observed chorus risers. We present an extension of the cyclotron resonance theory which uses a warm plasma model of the wave-particle interaction. This model assumes a two-component plasma, with an isotropic cold component and a bi-Maxwellian warm component. The addition of the warm component produces sufficient changes in the wave dispersion relation that the interaction can produce the highest frequencies observed in our data set. As predicted by theory, an anisotropic plasma is required to produce high frequency waves. The chorus source location is determined by this cyclotron resonance theory to be located near the equatorial plane. |
