TY  - GEN
A1  - Woodfield, Emma E.
A1  - Horne, Richard B.
A1  - Glauert, Sarah A.
A1  - Menietti, John D.
A1  - Shprits, Yuri Y.
A1  - Kurth, William S.
T1  - Formation of electron radiation belts at Saturn by Z-mode wave acceleration
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - At Saturn electrons are trapped in the planet's magnetic field and accelerated to relativistic energies to form the radiation belts, but how this dramatic increase in electron energy occurs is still unknown. Until now the mechanism of radial diffusion has been assumed but we show here that in-situ acceleration through wave particle interactions, which initial studies dismissed as ineffectual at Saturn, is in fact a vital part of the energetic particle dynamics there. We present evidence from numerical simulations based on Cassini spacecraft data that a particular plasma wave, known as Z-mode, accelerates electrons to MeV energies inside 4 R-S (1 R-S = 60,330 km) through a Doppler shifted cyclotron resonant interaction. Our results show that the Z-mode waves observed are not oblique as previously assumed and are much better accelerators than O-mode waves, resulting in an electron energy spectrum that closely approaches observed values without any transport effects included.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1032 
KW  - astrophysical plasmas
KW  - giant planets
KW  - magnetospheric physics
KW  - diffusion
KW  - pitch angle
KW  - plasma
KW  - radio
KW  - region
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-468342
SN  - 1866-8372
IS  - 1032
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Smirnov, Artem
A1  - Shprits, Yuri Y.
A1  - Allison, Hayley
A1  - Aseev, Nikita
A1  - Drozdov, Alexander
A1  - Kollmann, Peter
A1  - Wang, Dedong
A1  - Saikin, Anthony
T1  - Storm-Time evolution of the Equatorial Electron Pitch Angle Distributions in Earth's Outer Radiation Belt
JF  - Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences
N2  - In this study we analyze the storm-time evolution of equatorial electron pitch angle distributions (PADs) in the outer radiation belt region using observations from the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) instrument aboard the Van Allen Probes in 2012-2019. The PADs are approximated using a sum of the first, third and fifth sine harmonics. Different combinations of the respective coefficients refer to the main PAD shapes within the outer radiation belt, namely the pancake, flat-top, butterfly and cap PADs. We conduct a superposed epoch analysis of 129 geomagnetic storms and analyze the PAD evolution for day and night MLT sectors. PAD shapes exhibit a strong energy-dependent response. At energies of tens of keV, the PADs exhibit little variation throughout geomagnetic storms. Cap PADs are mainly observed at energies < 300 keV, and their extent in L shrinks with increasing energy. The cap distributions transform into the pancake PADs around the main phase of the storm on the nightside, and then come back to their original shapes during the recovery phase. At higher energies on the dayside, the PADs are mainly pancake during pre-storm conditions and become more anisotropic during the main phase. The quiet-time butterfly PADs can be observed on the nightside at L> 5.6. During the main phase, butterfly PADs have stronger 90 degrees-minima and can be observed at lower L-shells (down to L = 5), then transitioning into flat-top PADs at L similar to 4.5 - 5 and pancake PADs at L < 4.5. The resulting PAD coefficients for different energies, locations and storm epochs can be used to test the wave models and physics-based radiation belt codes in terms of pitch angle distributions.
KW  - pitch angle
KW  - pitch angle distributions
KW  - electrons
KW  - radiation belts
KW  - magnetosphere
KW  - van alien probes
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2022.836811
SN  - 2296-987X
VL  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Media
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Smirnov, Artem
A1  - Shprits, Yuri Y.
A1  - Allison, Hayley
A1  - Aseev, Nikita
A1  - Drozdov, Alexander
A1  - Kollmann, Peter
A1  - Wang, Dedong
A1  - Saikin, Anthony
T1  - An empirical model of the equatorial electron pitch angle distributions in earth's outer radiation belt
JF  - Space Weather: the International Journal of Research and Applications
N2  - In this study, we present an empirical model of the equatorial electron pitch angle distributions (PADs) in the outer radiation belt based on the full data set collected by the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) instrument onboard the Van Allen Probes in 2012-2019. The PADs are fitted with a combination of the first, third and fifth sine harmonics. The resulting equation resolves all PAD types found in the outer radiation belt (pancake, flat-top, butterfly and cap PADs) and can be analytically integrated to derive omnidirectional flux. We introduce a two-step modeling procedure that for the first time ensures a continuous dependence on L, magnetic local time and activity, parametrized by the solar wind dynamic pressure. We propose two methods to reconstruct equatorial electron flux using the model. The first approach requires two uni-directional flux observations and is applicable to low-PA data. The second method can be used to reconstruct the full equatorial PADs from a single uni- or omnidirectional measurement at off-equatorial latitudes. The model can be used for converting the long-term data sets of electron fluxes to phase space density in terms of adiabatic invariants, for physics-based modeling in the form of boundary conditions, and for data assimilation purposes.
KW  - pitch angle
KW  - radiation belt
KW  - model
KW  - magnetosphere
KW  - van allen probes;
KW  - electrons
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1029/2022SW003053
SN  - 1542-7390
VL  - 20
IS  - 9
PB  - American Geophysical Union
CY  - Washington, DC
ER  -