Chorus acceleration of radiation belt relativistic electrons during March 2013 geomagnetic storm

The recent launching of Van Allen probes provides an unprecedent opportunity to investigate variations of the radiation belt relativistic electrons. During the 17–19 March 2013 storm, the Van Allen probes simultaneously detected strong chorus waves and substantial increases in fluxes of relativistic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Space physics 2014-05, Vol.119 (5), p.3325-3332
Main Authors: Xiao, Fuliang, Yang, Chang, He, Zhaoguo, Su, Zhenpeng, Zhou, Qinghua, He, Yihua, Kletzing, C. A., Kurth, W. S., Hospodarsky, G. B., Spence, H. E., Reeves, G. D., Funsten, H. O., Blake, J. B., Baker, D. N., Wygant, J. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
chorus waves
Computer simulation
Diffusion coefficient
Electron density
Electrons
Fluxes
Geophysics
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Probes
Radiation
Radiation belts
RBSP results
relativistic electron acceleration
Space probes
Spectra
wave-particle interaction
Waves
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Summary:The recent launching of Van Allen probes provides an unprecedent opportunity to investigate variations of the radiation belt relativistic electrons. During the 17–19 March 2013 storm, the Van Allen probes simultaneously detected strong chorus waves and substantial increases in fluxes of relativistic (2 − 4.5 MeV) electrons around L = 4.5. Chorus waves occurred within the lower band 0.1–0.5fce (the electron equatorial gyrofrequency), with a peak spectral density ∼10−4 nT2/Hz. Correspondingly, relativistic electron fluxes increased by a factor of 102–103 during the recovery phase compared to the main phase levels. By means of a Gaussian fit to the observed chorus spectra, the drift and bounce‐averaged diffusion coefficients are calculated and then used to solve a 2‐D Fokker‐Planck diffusion equation. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the lower‐band chorus waves indeed produce such huge enhancements in relativistic electron fluxes within 15 h, fitting well with the observation. Key Points Initial RBSP correlated data of chorus waves and relativistic electron fluxes A realistic simulation to examine effect of chorus on relativistic electron flux Chorus yields huge increases in electron flux rapidly, consistent with data
ISSN:2169-9380
2169-9402
DOI:10.1002/2014JA019822