Quantifying the Effect of Magnetic Field Line Curvature Scattering on the Loss of Ring Current Ions

During geomagnetic storms, the ring current ions sometimes exhibit rapid loss as suggested by the fast recovery of the Dst index on a time scale of a few hours. The effects of magnetic field line curvature (FLC) scattering on the loss of ring current ions, which have not been well quantified, are studied here by test particle simulations under the T89c magnetic field model. Our simulation results show that the prediction of ion loss based on a single‐value cutoff of the κ parameter or maximum ofδ μ μof a single FLC scattering is not accurate. Instead, the e‐folding lifetime ( τ ) for the loss of ring current ions due to cumulative FLC scattering has been calculated for different initial ion energies, equatorial pitch angles, and L shells under different geomagnetic conditions. The results show that in general the FLC scattering loss is faster for ions of higher energy, higher mass, smaller pitch angle, higher L , and at high Kp level. Specifically, we find that at Kp  = 6 the lifetime can be <10 h at L  > 5 for 100 s keV protons and at L  > 4 for 100 s keV O + , which demonstrates that FLC scattering can be an important mechanism for the observed fast loss ( τ  < 10 h) of ring current ions during geomagnetic storms. Furthermore, we formulate an empirical formula for τ as a function of ion energy, pitch angle, position, species, and Kp . The empirical formula can be directly included in ring current models to account for the FLC scattering effects.