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Chorus acceleration of radiation belt relativistic electrons during March 2013 geomagnetic storm
Author(s) -
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.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2014ja019822
Subject(s) - chorus , van allen radiation belt , physics , van allen probes , electron , geomagnetic storm , computational physics , diffusion , earth's magnetic field , astrophysics , atomic physics , magnetosphere , magnetic field , nuclear physics , plasma , quantum mechanics , art , literature
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 0.1–0.5 f c e (the electron equatorial gyrofrequency), with a peak spectral density ∼10 −4 nT 2 /Hz. Correspondingly, relativistic electron fluxes increased by a factor of 10 2 –10 3 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.