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Wave‐driven gradual loss of energetic electrons in the slot region
Author(s) -
He Zhaoguo,
Yan Qi,
Chu Yuchuan,
Cao Yong
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2016ja023087
Subject(s) - hiss , electron , physics , scattering , pitch angle , van allen probes , geomagnetic storm , computational physics , diffusion , flux (metallurgy) , phase (matter) , earth's magnetic field , electron scattering , van allen radiation belt , atomic physics , nuclear physics , geophysics , magnetic field , magnetosphere , plasma , optics , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , thermodynamics
Abstract Resonant pitch angle scattering by plasmaspheric hiss has long been considered to be responsible for the energetic electron loss in the slot region, but the detailed quantitative comparison between theory and observations is still lacking. Here we focus on the loss of 100–600 keV electrons at L = 3 during the recovery phase of a geomagnetic storm on 28 June 2013. Van Allen Probes data showed the concurrence of intense (with power up to 10 −4 nT 2 /Hz) plasmaspheric hiss waves and significant (up to 1 order) loss of energetic electrons within 2 days. Our quasi‐linear diffusion simulations show that hiss scattering can basically reproduce the temporal evolution of the angular distribution of the observed electron flux decay. This quantitative analysis provides further support for the mechanism of hiss‐driven electron loss in the slot region.