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Statistical characteristics of EMIC wave‐driven relativistic electron precipitation with observations of POES satellites: Revisit
Author(s) -
Wang Zhenzhen,
Yuan Zhigang,
Li Ming,
Li Huimin,
Wang Dedong,
Li Haimeng,
Huang Shiyong,
Qiao Zheng
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2014ja020082
Subject(s) - physics , van allen radiation belt , plasmasphere , solar wind , local time , electron precipitation , van allen probes , electron , astrophysics , computational physics , dynamic pressure , ionosphere , geophysics , magnetosphere , plasma , nuclear physics , mechanics , statistics , mathematics
Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves play an important role in the magnetospheric dynamics and can scatter relativistic electrons in the outer radiation belt into the loss cone leading to the rapid loss of relativistic electrons. In this paper, we present characteristics of EMIC wave‐driven relativistic electron precipitation (REP) with observations of six Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES). Based on the simultaneity between spikes in the P1 0° ( Ep = 30 keV–80 keV) and P6 0° ( Ee > 1 MeV) channels, in comparison with the criterion of Carson et al. (2013), we improve the algorithm and make it stricter. A total of 436,286 individual half orbits between 1998 and 2010 are inspected by this algorithm. The majority of selected events are observed at L values within the outer radiation belt (3 < L < 7) and more common in 1800–2200 magnetic local time. The distribution of normalized events follows the location of plasmapause contracting toward lower L value with the decrease of the Dst index, implying a strong link between detected events and the plasmapause. The cluster of normalized events moves to later afternoon sector where the peak occurrence of plasmaspheric plumes is located during geomagnetic storms. It is suggested that there is a connection between plasmaspheric plumes and detected events. Corresponding to the peak of event occurrence in 2003, solar wind dynamic pressure has a same peak. In addition, the minimum values of them are coincident. These results indicate that the increase of the solar wind dynamic pressure enhances the likelihood of EMIC wave‐driven relativistic electron precipitation.