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Title: Near-earth injection of MeV electrons associated with intense dipolarization electric fields: Van Allen Probes observations

Abstract

Substorms generally inject tens to hundreds of keV electrons, but intense substorm electric fields have been shown to inject MeV electrons as well. An intriguing question is whether such MeVelectron injections can populate the outer radiation belt. Here we present observations of a substorm injection of MeV electrons into the inner magnetosphere. In the premidnight sector at L ~ 5.5, Van Allen Probes (Radiation Belt Storm Probes)-A observed a large dipolarization electric field (50 mV/m) over ~40 s and a dispersionless injection of electrons up to ~3 MeV. Pitch angle observations indicated betatron acceleration of MeV electrons at the dipolarization front. Corresponding signals of MeV electron injection were observed at LANL-GEO, THEMIS-D, and GOES at geosynchronous altitude. Through a series of dipolarizations, the injections increased the MeV electron phase space density by 1 order of magnitude in less than 3 h in the outer radiation belt (L > 4.8). Our observations provide evidence that deep injections can supply significant MeV electrons.

Authors:
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [6];  [6]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7];  [7];  [7];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8];  [8];  [9];  [10] more »; ORCiD logo [11];  [12];  [3];  [3];  [3] « less
  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China). State Key Lab. of Space Weather, National Space Science Center; Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN (United States). School of Physics and Astronomy.
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China). State Key Lab. of Space Weather, National Space Science Center
  3. Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN (United States). School of Physics and Astronomy.
  4. Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). Dept. of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences.
  5. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy.
  6. Univ. of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO (United States). Lab. for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
  7. The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Space Sciences Dept.
  8. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  9. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States). Dept. of Physics Institute for Earth, Oceans and Space.
  10. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.
  11. Braunschweig University of Technology, Braunschweig (Germany). Institute of Geophysics and extraterrestrial Physics.
  12. University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States). Department of Physics.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1212461
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1234256
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-27791
Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396; 41231067; 921647; NNX15AF55G
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats

Dai, Lei, Wang, Chi, Duan, Suping, He, Zhaohai, Wygant, John R., Cattell, Cynthia A., Tao, Xin, Su, Zhenpeng, Kletzing, Craig, Baker, Daniel N., Li, Xinlin, Malaspina, David, Blake, J. Bernard, Fennell, Joseph, Claudepierre, Seth, Turner, Drew L., Reeves, Geoffrey D., Funsten, Herbert O., Spence, Harlan E., Angelopoulos, Vassilis, Fruehauff, Dennis, Chen, Lunjin, Thaller, Scott, Breneman, Aaron, and Tang, Xiangwei. Near-earth injection of MeV electrons associated with intense dipolarization electric fields: Van Allen Probes observations. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1002/2015GL064955.
Dai, Lei, Wang, Chi, Duan, Suping, He, Zhaohai, Wygant, John R., Cattell, Cynthia A., Tao, Xin, Su, Zhenpeng, Kletzing, Craig, Baker, Daniel N., Li, Xinlin, Malaspina, David, Blake, J. Bernard, Fennell, Joseph, Claudepierre, Seth, Turner, Drew L., Reeves, Geoffrey D., Funsten, Herbert O., Spence, Harlan E., Angelopoulos, Vassilis, Fruehauff, Dennis, Chen, Lunjin, Thaller, Scott, Breneman, Aaron, & Tang, Xiangwei. Near-earth injection of MeV electrons associated with intense dipolarization electric fields: Van Allen Probes observations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064955
Dai, Lei, Wang, Chi, Duan, Suping, He, Zhaohai, Wygant, John R., Cattell, Cynthia A., Tao, Xin, Su, Zhenpeng, Kletzing, Craig, Baker, Daniel N., Li, Xinlin, Malaspina, David, Blake, J. Bernard, Fennell, Joseph, Claudepierre, Seth, Turner, Drew L., Reeves, Geoffrey D., Funsten, Herbert O., Spence, Harlan E., Angelopoulos, Vassilis, Fruehauff, Dennis, Chen, Lunjin, Thaller, Scott, Breneman, Aaron, and Tang, Xiangwei. Mon . "Near-earth injection of MeV electrons associated with intense dipolarization electric fields: Van Allen Probes observations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064955. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1212461.
@article{osti_1212461,
title = {Near-earth injection of MeV electrons associated with intense dipolarization electric fields: Van Allen Probes observations},
author = {Dai, Lei and Wang, Chi and Duan, Suping and He, Zhaohai and Wygant, John R. and Cattell, Cynthia A. and Tao, Xin and Su, Zhenpeng and Kletzing, Craig and Baker, Daniel N. and Li, Xinlin and Malaspina, David and Blake, J. Bernard and Fennell, Joseph and Claudepierre, Seth and Turner, Drew L. and Reeves, Geoffrey D. and Funsten, Herbert O. and Spence, Harlan E. and Angelopoulos, Vassilis and Fruehauff, Dennis and Chen, Lunjin and Thaller, Scott and Breneman, Aaron and Tang, Xiangwei},
abstractNote = {Substorms generally inject tens to hundreds of keV electrons, but intense substorm electric fields have been shown to inject MeV electrons as well. An intriguing question is whether such MeVelectron injections can populate the outer radiation belt. Here we present observations of a substorm injection of MeV electrons into the inner magnetosphere. In the premidnight sector at L ~ 5.5, Van Allen Probes (Radiation Belt Storm Probes)-A observed a large dipolarization electric field (50 mV/m) over ~40 s and a dispersionless injection of electrons up to ~3 MeV. Pitch angle observations indicated betatron acceleration of MeV electrons at the dipolarization front. Corresponding signals of MeV electron injection were observed at LANL-GEO, THEMIS-D, and GOES at geosynchronous altitude. Through a series of dipolarizations, the injections increased the MeV electron phase space density by 1 order of magnitude in less than 3 h in the outer radiation belt (L > 4.8). Our observations provide evidence that deep injections can supply significant MeV electrons.},
doi = {10.1002/2015GL064955},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

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Magnetospheric Multiscale observations of energetic oxygen ions at the duskside magnetopause during intense substorms
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