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Electron Diffusion by Magnetosonic Waves in the Earth's Radiation Belts

We conduct a global survey of magnetosonic waves and compute the associated bounce and drift averaged diffusion coefficients, taking into account co-located measurements of fpe/fce, to assess the role of magnetosonic waves in radiation belt dynamics, where fpe is the plasma frequency and fce is the electron gyrofrequency.. The average magnetosonic wave intensities increase with increasing geomagnetic activity and decreasing relative frequency with the majority of the wave power in the range fcp < f < 0.3fLHR during active conditions, where fcp is the proton gyrofrequency and fLHR is the lower hybrid resonance frequency. In the region 4.0 <= L* <= 5.0, the bounce and drift averaged energy diffusion rates due to magnetosonic waves never exceed those due to whistler mode chorus, suggesting that whistler mode chorus is the dominant mode for electron energisation to relativistic energies in this region. Further in, in the region 2.0 <= L* <= 3.5, the bounce and drift averaged pitch angle diffusion rates due to magnetosonic waves can exceed those due to plasmaspheric hiss and very low frequency (VLF) transmitters over energy-dependent ranges of intermediate pitch angles. We compute electron lifetimes by solving the 1D pitch angle diffusion equation including the effects of plasmaspheric hiss, VLF transmitters and magnetosonic waves. We find that magnetosonic waves can have a significant effect on electron loss timescales in the slot region reducing the loss timescales during active times from 5.6 to 1.5 days for 500 keV electrons at L* = 2.5 and from 140.4 days to 35.7 days for 1 MeV electrons at L* = 2.0.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Highlight Topic grant NE/P01738X/1 (Rad-Sat) and the NERC grants NE/V00249X/1 (Sat-Risk) and NE/R016038/1.

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Date (Creation)
2022-03-24
Date (Revision)
2022-03-24
Date (Publication)
2022-03-24
Date (released)
2022-03-24
Edition
1.0
Unique resource identifier
https://doi.org/10.5285/aae6ea2f-7dab-4ab1-830f-a4c53589e340
Codespace
doi
Unique resource identifier
GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01628
Codespace
https://data.bas.ac.uk/
Unique resource identifier
NE/P01738X/1
Codespace
award
Unique resource identifier
NE/R016038/1
Codespace
award
Other citation details
Please cite this item as: Wong, J. (2022). Electron Diffusion by Magnetosonic Waves in the Earth's Radiation Belts (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/aae6ea2f-7dab-4ab1-830f-a4c53589e340
Credit
No credit.
Status
completed Completed
Author
  British Antarctic Survey - Wong, Jin-Mann ( Researcher )
Point of contact
  NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road , Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , CB3 0ET , United Kingdom
+44 (0)1223 221400
https://www.bas.ac.uk/team/business-teams/information-services/uk-polar-data-centre/
Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded As needed
Maintenance note
completed Completed
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Sun-earth Interactions > Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Dynamics
Theme
  • Electron Diffusion
  • Magnetosonic Waves
  • Radiation Belts
Place
  • Van Allen Probes: Perigee ~1.1Re, Apogee ~5.8Re, Inclination 10 degrees Van Allen Radiation Belts
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • Atmospheric conditions
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
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no limitations to public access
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otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
no limitations
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license License
Other constraints
Open Government Licence v3.0
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
This data is supplied under Open Government Licence v3.0
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
None
Unique resource identifier
url
Codespace
url
Association Type
crossReference Cross reference
Unique resource identifier
url
Codespace
url
Association Type
crossReference Cross reference
Unique resource identifier
url
Codespace
url
Association Type
crossReference Cross reference
Unique resource identifier
url
Codespace
url
Association Type
crossReference Cross reference
Unique resource identifier
doi
Codespace
doi
Association Type
crossReference Cross reference
Spatial representation type
textTable Text, table
Metadata language
engEnglish
Character set
utf8 UTF8
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
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Begin date
2012-10-01
End date
2019-10-31
Supplemental Information
It is recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of any data, and that the author be contacted with any questions regarding appropriate use. If you find any errors or omissions, please report them to polardatacentre@bas.ac.uk.
Date (Publication)
2008-11-12
Publisher
  European Petroleum Survey Group
https://www.epsg-registry.org/
Unique resource identifier
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::3031
Version
6.18.3

Distributor

Distributor
  NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road , Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , CB3 0ET , United Kingdom
+44 (0)1223 221400
https://www.bas.ac.uk/team/business-teams/information-services/uk-polar-data-centre/
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Statement

Methodology:

The data for the figures and generation of the diffusion coefficients come from the EMFISIS instrument on Van Allen Probes RBSP-A available online (https://emfisis.physics.uiowa.edu/data/index). The Kp indices used in this study are available from the NSSDC Omniweb. Full details of the subsequent analysis are given in Wong et al [2022]

Data collection:

We use data from the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) instruments on board RBSP-A. The EMFISIS Waveform Receivers on RBSP-A measured the sum of the three components of the magnetic power spectral density of the waves in 65 frequency channels, with centre frequencies between 2.13 Hz and 11.24 kHz. We also use density measurements from the EMFISIS High Frequency Receiver which measured the electric field power spectral density in the frequency range 10 kHz to 487 kHz.

Data quality:

The wave data have been calibrated and quality-controlled prior to release. We also omitted data during thruster firing, eclipse and charging times.

File identifier
aae6ea2f-7dab-4ab1-830f-a4c53589e340 XML
Metadata language
engEnglish
Character set
utf8 UTF8
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Hierarchy level name
dataset
Date stamp
2022-03-24
Metadata standard name
ISO 19115 Geographic Information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
ISO 19115:2003(E)
Point of contact
  NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road , Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , CB3 0ET , United Kingdom
+44 (0)1223 221400
https://www.bas.ac.uk/team/business-teams/information-services/uk-polar-data-centre/
 
 

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Keywords

Electron Diffusion Magnetosonic Waves Radiation Belts
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
Atmospheric conditions
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords
EARTH SCIENCE > Sun-earth Interactions > Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Dynamics

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