Title: Comparison of electron loss models in the inner magnetosphere during the 2013 St. Patrick's Day geomagnetic storm

Abstract

Electrons with energies in the keV range play an important role in the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere. Therefore, accurately modeling electron fluxes in this region is of great interest. However, these calculations constitute a challenging task since the lifetimes of electrons that are available have limitations. In this study, we simulate electron fluxes in the energy range of 20 eV-100 keV to assess how well different electron loss models can account for the observed electron fluxes during the GEM Challenge Event of the 2013 St. Patrick's Day storm. Three models (Case 1, Case 2, and Case 3) of electron lifetimes due to wave-induced pitch angle scattering are used to compute the fluxes, which are compared with measurements from the Van Allen Probes. The three models consider electron losses due to interactions with whistler mode hiss waves inside the plasmasphere and with whistler mode chorus waves outside the plasmasphere. The Case 1 (historical) model produces excessive loss at low L shells before and after the storm, suggesting that it overestimates losses due to hiss during quiet times. During the storm main phase and early recovery all three models show good agreement with the observations, indicating that losses due to chorusmore » during disturbed times are in general well accounted for by the models. Furthermore, the more recent Case 2 and Case 3 models show overall better agreement with the observed fluxes.« less

Authors:

Ferradas, C. P. ^[1]; Jordanova, Vania Koleva  ^[2];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-0475-8743"
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Reeves, Geoffrey D.  ^[2];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-7985-8098"
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Larsen, Brian Arthur  ^[2]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Publication Date:

2019-09-13

Research Org.:

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

OSTI Identifier:

1566112

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1571317

Report Number(s):

LA-UR-19-21530
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9380

Grant/Contract Number:  

89233218CNA000001

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: none; Journal Issue: none; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9380

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; electron loss; pitch angle scattering; electron lifetime; Weimer electric field model; numerical modeling; Van Allen Probes; Heliospheric Physics; Magnetospheric Physics