Properties of low‐energy electron precipitation in the cleft during periods of unusually high ambient electron temperatures

A recently developed automated fitting procedure for Dynamics Explorer 2 electron energy spectra represents each auroral electron spectrum as a superposition of several Maxwellian and several Gaussian components. The fitting parameters give a digital representation which uniquely describes each spectrum. It is shown that unusually high ambient electron temperatures (of the order of 10,000°K) in the cleft are strongly correlated with the intensity parameters of the lowest‐temperature Maxwellian components of the precipitation. The collisional heat input into the ambient electrons by these Maxwellian components of the precipitation fluxes is shown to be more than an order of magnitude higher in the high‐temperature storm time cases than it is in a control set of “normal temperature” quiet time cases. The heating effect of the solar flux is shown to be nearly the same for both sets of cases. As a result it is concluded that electron precipitation is the chief mechanism responsible for those high ambient temperatures.