The combination of the enormous DMSP data base of precipitating particles and our several years experience in conducting statistical studies involving automated identification algorithms suggests a highly fruitful line of research. We propose to identify every instance of electron acceleration as evidenced by monoenergetic electron peaks in 7 years of particle data. We estimate that the resulting catalog will consist of approximately 500,000 electron acceleration events; approximately 3 orders of magnitude more than the largest previous study of electron acceleration events. We will also record all instances of electron or ion diffuse aurora above a certain threshold (probably 0.25 ergs/cm2s). The research will promptly answer some long standing disputes such as the existence of a 1400 "hot spot" of electron acceleration; and the existence of a "prenoon gap" in the discrete aurora. The huge size of the electron acceleration even catalog will make it possible to subdivide by interplanetary magnetic field Bz and By conditions, as well as indices of magnetic activity, such as Kp and AE. That is, a result of the proposed research will be maps of the statistical distribution of electron acceleration events throughout the high latitude regions, at all local times and a variety of binning conditions. Intense diffuse auroras will be similarly studied; particular attention will be paid to instances of ion energy fluxes exceeding that of electrons (true ion auroras). Finally, the entire catalog of 500,000 electron acceleration events will be shared with the general ionospheric community. convenient access to the entire list of auroras encountered by DMSP satellites on any specified day between December 1983 and December 1990 will also be provided. Such access will be accomplished in part by extending the existing automatic response system of identifications of the magnetospheric source regions of precipitation.
