Simulated Trapping of Solar Energetic Protons for the 8-10 March 2012
Geomagnetic Storm: Impact on Inner Zone Protons as Measured by Van Allen
Probes
Abstract
Solar Energetic Protons (SEPs) have been shown to contribute
significantly to the inner zone trapped proton population for energies
< 100 MeV and L > 1.3 (Selesnick et al., 2007).
The Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) on the Van Allen
Probes launched 30 August 2012 observed a double-peaked (in L) inner
zone population throughout the 7-year lifetime of the mission. It has
been proposed that a strong SEP event accompanied by a CME-shock in
early March 2012 provided the SEP source for the higher L trapped proton
population, which then diffused radially inward to be observed by REPT
at L ~ 2. Here, we follow trajectories of SEP protons
launched isotropically from a sphere at 7 Re in 15s cadence fields from
an LFM-RCM global MHD simulation driven by measured upstream solar wind
parameters. The timescale of the interplanetary shock arrival is
captured, launching a magnetosonic impulse propagating azimuthally along
the dawn and dusk flanks inside the magnetosphere, shown previously to
produce SEP trapping. The MHD-test particle simulation uses GOES proton
energy spectra to weight the initial radial profile required for the
radial diffusion calculation over the following two years. GOES proton
measurements also provide a dynamic outer boundary condition for radial
diffusion. A direct comparison with REPT measurements 20 months
following the trapping event in March 2012 provides good agreement with
this novel combination of short-term and long-term evolution of the
newly trapped protons.