Disturbances of near‐Earth space are predominantly driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) mostly originating from sunspots and high‐speed solar wind streams (HSSs) emanating from coronal holes. Here we study the relative importance of CMEs and HSSs as well as slow solar wind in producing energetic electron precipitation. We use the recently corrected energetic electron measurements from the Medium Energy Proton Electron Detector instrument on board low‐altitude NOAA/Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites from 1979 to 2013. Using solar wind observations categorized into three different flow types, we study the contributions of these flows to annual electron precipitation and their efficiencies in producing precipitation. We find that HSS contribution nearly always dominates over the other flows and peaks strongly in the declining solar cycle phase. CME contribution mostly follows the sunspot cycle but is enhanced also in the declining phase. The efficiency of both HSS and CME peaks in the declining phase. We also study the dependence of electron precipitation on solar wind southward magnetic field component, speed, and density and find that the solar wind speed is the dominant factor affecting the precipitation. Since HSSs enhance the average solar wind speed in the declining phase, they also enhance the efficiency of CMEs during these times and thus have a double effect in enhancing energetic electron precipitation.
One of the most popular long‐term data sets of energetic particles used in, for example, long‐term radiation belt studies and in atmospheric/climate studies is perhaps the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) data set, which extends nearly continuously from 1979 to present. The energetic particle measurements by the Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector instrument onboard the POES satellites have had many instrumental problems, which have made quantitative estimates of energetic particle fluxes somewhat difficult. However, in the recent years, these instrumental deficiencies have been studied and corrected. Here we aim to construct a new long‐term composite record of energetic electrons based on the Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector data. In this study we point out that there are also other remaining factors, not related to instrument construction, which still severely impact the overall homogeneity of the 39‐year POES data set. We concentrate here on studying and correcting two issues: (1) temporally varying background noise related to cosmic rays and (2) drift in the orientation of satellite orbital planes, which changes the sampling location of the satellites over time. In particular, we show that the drift of satellite orbital planes leads to rather large changes in the electron fluxes over time, which could be misinterpreted as true temporal changes without the corrections. These changes can be rather large, a factor of 3 or more in the poleward edge of the precipitation zone, and are likely to have a large impact, for example, on atmospheric ionization estimates based on POES data.
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