VELOCITY-SPACE DISTRIBUTIONS OF WAVE-ACCELERATED AURORAL ELECTRONS

The possibility that auroral electrons might be accelerated by electro static wave turbulence is further explored. Electron velocity distribu tions resulting from lower hybrid wave turbulence are modeled as funct ions of velocities parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic vector. The model,which is highly stylized with focus on the underlying physic s, is found to account readily for the wide range of experimentally ob served features such as ''beams,'' ''conics,'' and ''widened loss cone s.'' Consideration of the energetics of the process leads to the sugge stion that the acceleration may be essentially a plasma boundary pheno menon.