scholarly journals Energetic electron precipitation from the outer radiation belt during geomagnetic storms

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Horne ◽  
Mai Mai Lam ◽  
Janet C. Green
2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (A12) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Clilverd ◽  
Craig J. Rodger ◽  
Rory J. Gamble ◽  
Thomas Ulich ◽  
Tero Raita ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Sandhu ◽  
Jonathan Rae ◽  
John Wygant ◽  
Aaron Breneman ◽  
Sheng Tian ◽  
...  

<p>Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) waves drive radial diffusion of radiation belt electrons, where this process contributes to and, at times, dominates energisation, loss, and large scale transport of the outer radiation belt. In this study we quantify the changes and variability in ULF wave power during geomagnetic storms, through a statistical analysis of Van Allen Probes data for the time period spanning 2012 – 2019. The results show that global wave power enhancements occur during the main phase, and continue into the recovery phase of storms. Local time asymmetries show sources of ULF wave power are both external solar wind driving as well as internal sources from coupling with ring current ions and substorms.</p><p>The statistical analysis demonstrates that storm time ULF waves are able to access lower L values compared to pre-storm conditions, with enhancements observed within L = 4. We assess how magnetospheric compressions and cold plasma distributions shape how ULF wave power propagates through the magnetosphere. Results show that the Earthward displacement of the magnetopause is a key factor in the low L enhancements. Furthermore, the presence of plasmaspheric plumes during geomagnetic storms plays a crucial role in trapping ULF wave power, and contributes significantly to large storm time enhancements in ULF wave power.</p><p>The results have clear implications for enhanced radial diffusion of the outer radiation belt during geomagnetic storms. Estimates of storm time radial diffusion coefficients are derived from the ULF wave power observations, and compared to existing empirical models of radial diffusion coefficients. We show that current Kp-parameterised models, such as the Ozeke et al. [2014] model, do not fully capture the large variability in storm time radial diffusion coefficients or the extent of enhancements in the magnetic field diffusion coefficients.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Lara ◽  
Pablo S. Moya ◽  
Victor Pinto ◽  
Javier Silva ◽  
Beatriz Zenteno

<p>The inner magnetosphere is a very important region to study, as with satellite-based communications increasing day after day, possible disruptions are especially relevant due to the possible consequences in our daily life. It is becoming very important to know how the radiation belts behave, especially during strong geomagnetic activity. The radiation belts response to geomagnetic storms and solar wind conditions is still not fully understood, as relativistic electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt can be depleted, enhanced or not affected following intense activity. Different studies show how these results vary in the face of different events. As one of the main mechanisms affecting the dynamics of the radiation belt are wave-particle interactions between relativistic electrons and ULF waves. In this work we perform a statistical study of the relationship between ULF wave power and relativistic electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt during several geomagnetic storms, by using magnetic field and particle fluxes data measured by the Van Allen Probes between 2012 and 2017. We evaluate the correlation between the changes in flux and the cumulative effect of ULF wave activity during the main and recovery phases of the storms for different position in the outer radiation belt and energy channels. Our results show that there is a good correlation between the presence of ULF waves and the changes in flux during the recovery phase of the storm and that correlations vary as a function of energy. Also, we can see in detail how the ULF power change for the electron flux at different L-shell We expect these results to be relevant for the understanding of the relative role of ULF waves in the enhancements and depletions of energetic electrons in the radiation belts for condition described.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Wu ◽  
T. Chen ◽  
V. V. Kalegaev ◽  
M. I. Panasyuk ◽  
N. A. Vlasova ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Shi ◽  
Jie Ren ◽  
Qiugang Zong

<p>We present a statistical study of energy-dependent and L shell-dependent inner boundary of the outer radiation belt during 37 isolated geomagnetic storms using observations from Van Allen Probes from 2013 to 2017. There are mutual transformations between "V-shaped" and "S-shaped" inner boundaries during different storm phases, resulting from the competition among electron loss, radial transport and local acceleration. The radial position, onset time, E<sub>st</sub> (the minimum energy at L<sub>st</sub> where the inner boundary starts to exhibit an S-shaped form), and the radial width of S-shaped boundary (ΔL) are quantitatively defined according to the formation of a reversed energy spectrum (electron flux going up with increasing energies from hundreds of keV to ~1 MeV) from a kappa-like spectrum (electron flux steeply falling with increasing energies). The case and statistical results present that (1) The inner boundary has repeatable features associated with storms: the inner boundary is transformed from S-shaped to V-shaped form in several hours during the storm commencement and main phase, and retains in the V-shaped form for several days until it evolves into S-shaped during late recovery phase; (2) ΔL shows positive correlation with SYM-H index; (3) The duration of the V-shaped form is positively correlated with the storm intensity and the duration of the recovery phase; (4) The minimum energy E<sub>st</sub> are mainly distributed in the range of 100-550 keV. All these findings have important implications for understanding the dynamics of energetic electrons in the slot region and the outer radiation belt during geomagnetic storms.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldho Midhun Babu ◽  
Hilde Nesse Tyssøy ◽  
Christine Smith-Johnsen ◽  
Ville Aleksi Maliniemi ◽  
Josephine Alessandra Salice ◽  
...  

<p>Energetic electron precipitation (EEP) from the plasma sheet and the radiation belts, can collide with gases in the atmosphere and deposit their energy. EEP increase the production of NOx and HOx, which will catalytically destroy stratospheric ozone, an important element of atmospheric dynamics. The particle precipitation also causes variation in the radiation belt population. Therefore, measurement of latitudinal extend of the precipitation boundaries is important in quantifying atmospheric effects of Sun-Earth interaction and threats to spacecrafts and astronauts in the Earth’s radiation belt. <br>This study uses measurements by MEPED detectors of six NOAA/POES and EUMETSAT/METOP satellites during the year 2010 to determine the latitudinal boundaries of EEP and its variability with geomagnetic activity and solar wind drivers. Variation of the boundaries with respect to different particle energies and magnetic local time is studied. The result will be a key element for constructing a model of EEP variability to be applied in atmosphere climate models.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Turner ◽  
Ian Cohen ◽  
Kareem Sorathia ◽  
Sasha Ukhorskiy ◽  
Geoff Reeves ◽  
...  

<p>Earth’s magnetotail plasma sheet plays a crucial role in the variability of Earth’s outer electron radiation belt. Typically, injections of energetic electrons from Earth’s magnetotail into the outer radiation belt and inner magnetosphere during periods of substorm activity are not observed exceeding ~300 keV.  Consistent with that, phase space density radial distributions of electrons typically indicate that for electrons below ~300 keV, there is a source of electrons in the plasma sheet while for electrons with energies above that, there is a local source within the outer radiation belt itself.  However, here we ask the question: is this always the case or can the plasma sheet provide a direct source of relativistic (> ~500 keV) electrons into Earth’s outer radiation belt via substorm injection? Using phase space density analysis for fixed values of electron first and second adiabatic invariants, we use energetic electron data from NASA’s Van Allen Probes and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) missions during periods in which MMS observed energetic electron injections in the plasma sheet while Van Allen Probes concurrently observed injections into the outer radiation belt. We report on cases that indicate there was a sufficient source of up to >1 MeV electrons in the electron injections in the plasma sheet as observed by MMS, yet Van Allen Probes did not see those energies injected inside of geosynchronous orbit.  From global insight with recent test-particle simulations in global, dynamic magnetospheric fields, we offer an explanation for why the highest-energy electrons might not be able to inject into the outer belt even while the lower energy (< ~300 keV) electrons do. Two other intriguing points that we will discuss concerning these results are: i) what acceleration mechanism is capable of producing such abundance of relativistic electrons at such large radial distances (X-GSE < -10 RE) in Earth’s magnetotail? and ii) during what conditions (if any) might injections of relativistic electrons be able to penetrate into the outer belt?</p>


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