Active Precipitation of Radiation Belt Electrons using Rocket Exhaust
Driven Amplification (REDA) of Man-Made Whistlers
Abstract
Ground-based VLF transmitters located around the 2 world generate
signals that leak through the bottom side of the 3 ionosphere in the
form of whistler mode waves. Wave and particle 4 measurements on
satellites have observed that these man-made 5 VLF waves can be strong
enough to scatter trapped energetic 6 electrons into low pitch angle
orbits, causing loss by absorption in 7 the lower atmosphere. This
precipitation loss process is greatly 8 enhanced by intentional
amplification of the whistler waves using 9 a newly discovered process
called Rocket Exhaust Driven 10 Amplification (REDA). Satellite
measurements of REDA have 11 shown between 30-and 50-dB intensification
of VLF waves in 12 space using a 60-second burn of the 150 g/s thruster
on the Cygnus 13 satellite that services the International Space Station
(ISS). This 14 controlled amplification process is adequate to deplete
the 15 energetic particle population in the radiation belts in a few
minutes 16 rather than the multi-day period it would take naturally. 17
Numerical simulations of the pitch angle diffusion for radiation 18 belt
particles use the UCLA quasi-linear Fokker Planck model 19 (QLFP) to
assess the impact of REDA on radiation belt 20 remediation (RBR) of
newly injected energetic electrons. The 21 simulated precipitation
fluxes of energetic electrons are applied to 22 models of D-region
electron density and bremsstrahlung x-rays for 23 predictions of the
modified environment that can be observed with 24 satellite and
ground-based sensors. 25 26 Index Terms-Active Space Experiments,
Parametric