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Acceleration mechanism responsible for the formation of the new radiation belt during the 2003 Halloween solar storm
Author(s) -
Shprits Y. Y.,
Thorne R. M.,
Horne R. B.,
Glauert S. A.,
Cartwright M.,
Russell C. T.,
Baker D. N.,
Kanekal S. G.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005gl024256
Subject(s) - van allen radiation belt , physics , acceleration , plasmasphere , electron , van allen probes , pitch angle , diffusion , computational physics , radiation , storm , magnetosphere , flux (metallurgy) , geophysics , atmospheric sciences , plasma , meteorology , nuclear physics , classical mechanics , materials science , metallurgy , thermodynamics
Observations of the relativistic electron flux increases during the first days of November, 2003 are compared to model simulations of two leading mechanisms for electron acceleration. It is demonstrated that radial diffusion driven by ULF waves cannot explain the formation of the new radiation belt in the slot region and instead predicts a decay of fluxes during the recovery phase of the October 31st storm. Compression of the plasmasphere during the main phases of the storm created preferential conditions for local acceleration during interactions with VLF chorus. Local acceleration of electrons at L = 3 is modelled with a 2‐D pitch‐angle, energy diffusion code. We show that the energy diffusion driven by whistler mode waves can explain the gradual build up of fluxes to energies exceeding 3 MeV in a new radiation belt which is formed in the slot region normally devoid of high energy electrons.