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Quantification of relativistic electron microburst losses during the GEM storms
Author(s) -
O'Brien T. P.,
Looper M. D.,
Blake J. B.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl018621
Subject(s) - microburst , electron , storm , electron precipitation , van allen radiation belt , physics , atmospheric sciences , precipitation , phase (matter) , geomagnetic storm , environmental science , geophysics , magnetic field , magnetosphere , meteorology , nuclear physics , solar wind , wind shear , wind speed , quantum mechanics
Bursty precipitation of relativistic electrons has been implicated as a major loss process during magnetic storms. One type of precipitation, microbursts, appears to contain enough electrons to empty the prestorm outer radiation belt in approximately a day. During storms that result in high fluxes of trapped relativistic electrons, microbursts continue for several days into the recovery phase, when trapped fluxes are dramatically increasing. The present study shows that this apparent inconsistency is resolved by observations that the number of electrons lost through microbursts is 10–100 times larger during the main phase than during the recovery phase of several magnetic storms chosen by the Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) program.