Open AccessAn empirical model of electron and ion fluxes derived from observations at geosynchronous orbit
Author(s) -
Denton M. H.,
Thomsen M. F.,
Jordanova V. K.,
Henderson M. G.,
Borovsky J. E.,
Denton J. S.,
Pitchford D.,
Hartley D. P.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1002/2015sw001168
Subject(s) - geosynchronous orbit , flux (metallurgy) , physics , orbit (dynamics) , computational physics , satellite , solar wind , environmental science , geophysics , meteorology , plasma , astronomy , nuclear physics , aerospace engineering , materials science , engineering , metallurgy
Knowledge of the plasma fluxes at geosynchronous orbit is important to both scientific and operational investigations. We present a new empirical model of the ion flux and the electron flux at geosynchronous orbit (GEO) in the energy range ~1 eV to ~40 keV. The model is based on a total of 82 satellite years of observations from the magnetospheric plasma analyzer instruments on Los Alamos National Laboratory satellites at GEO. These data are assigned to a fixed grid of 24 local times and 40 energies, at all possible values of Kp . Bilinear interpolation is used between grid points to provide the ion flux and the electron flux values at any energy and local time, and for given values of geomagnetic activity (proxied by the 3 h Kp index), and also for given values of solar activity (proxied by the daily F 10.7 index). Initial comparison of the electron flux from the model with data from a Compact Environmental Anomaly Sensor II, also located at geosynchronous orbit, indicates a good match during both quiet and disturbed periods. The model is available for distribution as a FORTRAN code that can be modified to suit user requirements.