Wave-driven butterfly distribution of Van Allen belt relativistic electrons

Fuliang Xiao (), Chang Yang, Zhenpeng Su, Qinghua Zhou, Zhaoguo He, Yihua He, D. N. Baker, H. E. Spence, H. O. Funsten and J. B. Blake
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Fuliang Xiao: School of Physics and Electronic Sciences, Changsha University of Science and Technology, 2nd Section, South Wanjiali Road #960, Yuhua District, Changsha, Hunan 410004, China
Chang Yang: School of Physics and Electronic Sciences, Changsha University of Science and Technology, 2nd Section, South Wanjiali Road #960, Yuhua District, Changsha, Hunan 410004, China
Zhenpeng Su: Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory for Basic Plasma Physics, University of Science and Technology of China
Qinghua Zhou: School of Physics and Electronic Sciences, Changsha University of Science and Technology, 2nd Section, South Wanjiali Road #960, Yuhua District, Changsha, Hunan 410004, China
Zhaoguo He: Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yihua He: School of Physics and Electronic Sciences, Changsha University of Science and Technology, 2nd Section, South Wanjiali Road #960, Yuhua District, Changsha, Hunan 410004, China
D. N. Baker: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado
H. E. Spence: Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire
H. O. Funsten: Los Alamos National Laboratory
J. B. Blake: The Aerospace Corporation

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Van Allen radiation belts consist of relativistic electrons trapped by Earth's magnetic field. Trapped electrons often drift azimuthally around Earth and display a butterfly pitch angle distribution of a minimum at 90° further out than geostationary orbit. This is usually attributed to drift shell splitting resulting from day–night asymmetry in Earth’s magnetic field. However, direct observation of a butterfly distribution well inside of geostationary orbit and the origin of this phenomenon have not been provided so far. Here we report high-resolution observation that a unusual butterfly pitch angle distribution of relativistic electrons occurred within 5 Earth radii during the 28 June 2013 geomagnetic storm. Simulation results show that combined acceleration by chorus and magnetosonic waves can successfully explain the electron flux evolution both in the energy and butterfly pitch angle distribution. The current provides a great support for the mechanism of wave-driven butterfly distribution of relativistic electrons.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9590

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