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Cross-L* Coherence of the Outer Radiation Belt during Storms and the Role of the Plasmapause

Walton, SD; Forsyth, C; Rae, IJ; Watt, CEJ; Thompson, RL; Horne, RB; Meredith, NP; ... Glauert, SA; + view all (2021) Cross-L* Coherence of the Outer Radiation Belt during Storms and the Role of the Plasmapause. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics , 126 (10) , Article e2021JA029308. 10.1029/2021ja029308. Green open access

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Abstract

The high energy electron population in Earth’s outer radiation belt is extremely variable, changing by multiple orders of magnitude on timescales that vary from under an hour to several weeks. These changes are typically linked to geomagnetic activity such as storms and substorms. In this study, we seek to understand how coherent changes in the radiation belt are across all radial distances, in order to provide a spatial insight into apparent global variations. We do this by calculating the correlation between fluxes on different L* measured by the PET instrument aboard the SAMPEX spacecraft for times associated with 15 large storms. Our results show that during these times, variations in the >0.63 MeV electron flux are coherent outside the minimum plasmapause location and also coherent inside the minimum plasmapause location, when flux is present. However, variations in the electron fluxes inside the plasmapause show little correlation with those outside the plasmapause. During storm recovery and possibly main phases, flux variations are coherent across all L* regardless of plasmapause location, due to a rapid decrease, followed by an increase in radiation belt fluxes across all L*.

Type: Article
Title: Cross-L* Coherence of the Outer Radiation Belt during Storms and the Role of the Plasmapause
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2021ja029308
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JA029308
Language: English
Additional information: © 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Radiation Belt, Coherence, Plasmapause, Storm, SAMPEX, L∗
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10134948
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