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Radial Response of Outer Radiation Belt Relativistic Electrons During Enhancement Events at Geostationary Orbit
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  • Victor A. Pinto,
  • Jacob Bortnik,
  • Pablo Sebastian Moya,
  • Larry R. Lyons,
  • David Gary Sibeck,
  • Shrikanth G Kanekal,
  • Harlan E. Spence,
  • Daniel N. Baker
Victor A. Pinto
University of California Los Angeles

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jacob Bortnik
University of California Los Angeles
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Pablo Sebastian Moya
Universidad de Chile
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Larry R. Lyons
University of California Los Angeles
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David Gary Sibeck
GSFC
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Shrikanth G Kanekal
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
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Harlan E. Spence
University of New Hampshire
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Daniel N. Baker
University of Colorado Boulder
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Abstract

Forecasting relativistic electron fluxes at geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) has been a long term goal of the scientific community, and significant advances have been made in the past, but the relation to the interior of the radiation belts, that is, to lower $L-$shells is still not clear. In this work we have identified 60 relativistic electron enhancement events at GEO to study the radial response of outer belt fluxes and the correlation between the fluxes at GEO and those at lower $L-$shells. The enhancement events occurred between 1 October 2012 and 31 December 2017 and were identified using GOES 15 $>$2 MeV fluxes at GEO, which we have used to characterize the radial response of the radiation belt, by comparing to fluxes measured by the Van Allen probes ECT-REPT between $2.55.0$, and generally similar for $L>4.5$. Post enhancement maximum fluxes show a remarkable correlation for all $L > 4.0$ although the magnitude of the pre-existing fluxes on the outer belt plays a significant role and makes the ratio of pre-to-post enhancement fluxes less predictable in the region $4.0
May 2020Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 125 issue 5. 10.1029/2019JA027660