Abstract

Analysis of electric field and particle precipitating flux data measured by the Intercosmos- Bulgaria-1300 satellite was performed. It was found that the power spectra of the upper ionosphere electrostatic field fluctuations exhibit a power law dependence with an exponent close to -5/3, similar to the Kolmogorov's spectral distribution. A field-aligned potential drop between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere was estimated using the electron and ion precipitating fluxes data, which allowed to reconstruct large-scale fluctuations of electrostatic field in the magnetosphere. It was found that the spectra of fluctuations of the electrostatic field in the magnetosphere differ significantly from the ionospheric spectra, having a weaker dependence on k. This agrees well with the results directly obtained by Weimer at al. using the Dynamics Explorer 1 and 2 electric field data. It reveals a possibility to estimate the large-scale features of the magnetospheric electric field spectra by using solely the date from low-altitude satellites. © 2003 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.