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 - Del Corpo, Alfredo A1 - Vellante, Massimo A1 - Zhelavskaya, Irina A1 - Shprits, Yuri Y. A1 - Heilig, Balazs A1 - Reda, Jan A1 - Pietropaolo, Ermanno A1 - Lichtenberger, Janos T1 - Study of the average ion mass of the dayside magnetospheric plasma JF - Journal of geophysical research : Space physics N2 - The investigation of heavy ions dynamics and properties in the Earth's magnetosphere is still an important field of research as they play an important role in several space weather aspects. We present a statistical survey of the average ion mass in the dayside magnetosphere made comparing plasma mass density with electron number density measurements and focusing on both spatial and geomagnetic activity dependence. Field line resonance frequency observations across the European quasi-Meridional Magnetometer Array, are used to infer the equatorial plasma mass density in the range of magnetic L-shells 1.6-6.2. The electron number density is derived from local electric field measurements made on Van Allen Probes using the Neural-network-based Upper-hybrid Resonance Determination algorithm. The analysis is conducted separately for the plasmasphere and the plasmatrough during favorable periods for which both the plasma parameters are observed simultaneously. We found that throughout the plasmasphere the average ion mass is similar or equal to 1 amu for a wide range of geomagnetic activity conditions, suggesting that the plasma mainly consist of hydrogen ions, without regard to the level of geomagnetic activity. Conversely, the plasmatrough is characterized by a variable composition, highlighting a heavy ion mass loading that increases with increasing levels of geomagnetic disturbance. During the most disturbed conditions, the average radial structure shows a broad maximum around 3-4 Earth radii, probably correlated with the accumulation of oxygen ions near the plasmapause. Those ions are mostly observed in the post-dawn and pre-dusk longitudinal sectors. KW - magnetospheric average ion mass KW - magnetospheric plasma spatial KW - distribution KW - oxygen torus KW - geomagnetic activity dependence KW - field line KW - resonances Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JA030605 SN - 2169-9380 VL - 127 IS - 10 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington, DC ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Walker, Simon N. A1 - Boynton, Richard J. A1 - Shprits, Yuri Y. A1 - Balikhin, Michael A. A1 - Drozdov, Alexander T1 - Forecast of the energetic electron environment of the radiation belts JF - Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications N2 - Different modeling methodologies possess different strengths and weakness. For instance, data based models may provide superior accuracy but have a limited spatial coverage while physics based models may provide lower accuracy but provide greater spatial coverage. This study investigates the coupling of a data based model of the electron fluxes at geostationary orbit (GEO) with a numerical model of the radiation belt region to improve the resulting forecasts/pastcasts of electron fluxes over the whole radiation belt region. In particular, two coupling methods are investigated. The first assumes an average value for L* for GEO, namely LGEO* L-GEO* = 6.2. The second uses a value of L* that varies with geomagnetic activity, quantified using the Kp index. As the terrestrial magnetic field responds to variations in geomagnetic activity, the value of L* will vary for a specific location. In this coupling method, the value of L* is calculated using the Kp driven Tsyganenko 89c magnetic field model for field line tracing. It is shown that this addition can result in changes in the initialization of the parameters at the Versatile Electron Radiation Belt model outer boundary. Model outputs are compared to Van Allen Probes MagEIS measurements of the electron fluxes in the inner magnetosphere for the March 2015 geomagnetic storm. It is found that the fixed LGEO* L-GEO* coupling method produces a more realistic forecast. KW - radiation belt forecasts KW - data based NARMAX modeling KW - verb simulations; KW - geostationary orbit KW - electron flux forecasts Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2022SW003124 SN - 1542-7390 VL - 20 IS - 12 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haas, Bernhard A1 - Shprits, Yuri Y. A1 - Allison, Hayley A1 - Wutzig, Michael A1 - Wang, Dedong T1 - Which parameter controls ring current electron dynamics JF - Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences N2 - Predicting the electron population of Earth's ring current during geomagnetic storms still remains a challenging task. In this work, we investigate the sensitivity of 10 keV ring current electrons to different driving processes, parameterised by the Kp index, during several moderate and intense storms. Results are validated against measurements from the Van Allen Probes satellites. Perturbing the Kp index allows us to identify the most dominant processes for moderate and intense storms respectively. We find that during moderate storms (Kp < 6) the drift velocities mostly control the behaviour of low energy electrons, while loss from wave-particle interactions is the most critical parameter for quantifying the evolution of intense storms (Kp > 6). Perturbations of the Kp index used to drive the boundary conditions at GEO and set the plasmapause location only show a minimal effect on simulation results over a limited L range. It is further shown that the flux at L & SIM; 3 is more sensitive to changes in the Kp index compared to higher L shells, making it a good proxy for validating the source-loss balance of a ring current model. KW - ring current KW - magnetosphere KW - electron lifetimes KW - electrons KW - van allen probes (RBSP) KW - ring current model KW - verb Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2022.911002 SN - 2296-987X VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oran, Rona A1 - Weiss, Benjamin P. A1 - Santacruz-Pich, Maria De Soria A1 - Jun, Insoo A1 - Lawrence, David J. A1 - Polanskey, Carol A. A1 - Ratliff, J. Martin A1 - Raymond, Carol A. A1 - Ream, Jodie B. A1 - Russell, Christopher T. A1 - Shprits, Yuri Y. A1 - Zuber, Maria T. A1 - Elkins-Tanton, Linda T. T1 - Maximum energies of trapped particles around magnetized planets and small bodies JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - Energetic charged particles trapped in planetary radiation belts are hazardous to spacecraft. Planned missions to iron-rich asteroids with possible strong remanent magnetic fields require an assessment of trapped particles energies. Using laboratory measurements of iron meteorites, we estimate the largest possible asteroid magnetic moment. Although weak compared to moments of planetary dynamos, the small body size may yield strong surface fields. We use hybrid simulations to confirm the formation of a magnetosphere with an extended quasi-dipolar region. However, the short length scale of the field implies that energetic particle motion would be nonadiabatic, making existing radiation belt theories not applicable. Our idealized particle simulations demonstrate that chaotic motions lead to particle loss at lower energies than those predicted by adiabatic theory, which may explain the energies of transiently trapped particles observed at Mercury, Ganymede, and Earth. However, even the most magnetized asteroids are unlikely to stably trap hazardous particles. KW - asteroid magnetospheres KW - (16) Psyche KW - Psyche mission KW - energetic KW - particles KW - chaotic motion KW - hybrid simulations Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097014 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 49 IS - 13 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER -