Continuum: RPI Team Results
Continuum radiation from Hawkeye wave intensity maps
- Continuum source and beaming pattern seen at 31.1 and 56 kHz but not at 100 kHz
- Radiation beamed outward from source region located outside dawnside plasmasphere
- 60% of 4 years of data at 31.1 kHz in the IMAGE orbit are at the receiver noise level
- Hawkeye observes weak continuum radiation with discrete structure at high latitudes
Results from the ray tracing calculations
- Both trapped and escaping continuum radiation can easily 'leak' out of the magnetosphere
- Continuum radiation over the polar cap
- Expect the emission to be very weak
- Expect the emission to be 'discrete' and not broad-banded
- Ray tracing confirms observations
Earth's non-thermal continuum radiation does not uniformly Expect large variations in the wave emission pattern with the polar cap the best location