Lechner, E.M. Ciovati, G. Gurevich, A.V. Iavarone, M. Makita, J. Oli, B.D. JACoW Publishing Geneva, Switzerland 2673-5504 978-3-95450-234-9 10.18429/JACoW-SRF2023-MOPMB043 English 202-206 cavity niobium radio-frequency electron experiment Contribution to a conference proceedings 2023 2023-09 https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-SRF2023-MOPMB043 https://jacow.org/srf2023/papers/mopmb043.pdf We report scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on N-doped cavity hot and cold spot cutouts. Analysis of the electron tunneling spectra using a proximity effect theory shows that hot spots have a reduced superconducting gap and a wider distribution of the contact resistance. Alone, these degraded superconducting properties account for a much weaker excess dissipation as compared with the vortex contribution. Based on the correlation between the quasiparticle density of states and temperature mapping, we suggest that degraded superconducting properties may facilitate vortex nucleation or settling of trapped flux during cooling the cavity through the critical temperature.