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Multidimensional quasi‐linear diffusion of radiation belt electrons
Author(s) -
Albert J. M.,
Young S. L.
Publication year - 2005
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 - 10.1029/2005gl023191
Subject(s) - diffusion , van allen radiation belt , plasmasphere , physics , computational physics , electron , phase (matter) , phase space , radiation , diffusion mri , space (punctuation) , statistical physics , magnetosphere , plasma , optics , quantum mechanics , medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , linguistics , philosophy
We consider diffusion of outer zone radiation belt electrons by chorus waves. Quasi‐linear diffusion coefficients valid outside the plasmasphere have only been calculated recently, and indicate that the energy and cross diffusion rates can be comparable to that for pitch angle diffusion. Proper solution of the diffusion equation for phase space density must therefore be based on the full diffusion tensor, but this has been plagued by numerical problems associated with the large and rapidly varying cross terms. To circumvent this, techniques are developed for transforming to variables in which the cross diffusion term vanishes. A model calculation shows significant diffusion of phase space density at L = 4.5 from 0.2 MeV up to a few MeV in less than a day.