Earth’s inner magnetosphere contains multiple electron populations influenced by different factors. The cold electrons of the plasmasphere, warm plasma that contributes to the ring current, and the relativistic plasma of the radiation belt often seem to behave independently. Using omni-directional flux and energy measurements from the HOPE and MagEIS instruments aboard the Van Allen Probes, we provide a detailed density and temperature description of the inner magnetosphere, offering a comprehensive statistical analysis of the entire Van Allen Probe era. While number density and temperature data at geosynchronous orbit are available, this study focuses on the inner magnetosphere (2 < L∗ < 6). Values of density and temperature are extracted by fitting energy and phase space density to obtain the distribution function. The fitted distributions are related to the zeroth and second moments to estimate the number density and temperature. Analysis has indicated that a two Maxwellian fit is sufficient over a wide range of L∗ and that there are two independent plasma populations. The more energetic population has a median number density of approximately 1.2 × 104 m−3 and a temperature of around 130 keV, with a temperature peak observed between L* = 4 and L*= 4.5. This population is relatively uniform in MLT. In contrast, the less energetic warm electron population has a median number density of about 2.5 × 104 m−3 and a temperature of 7.4 keV. Strong statistical trends in density and temperature across both L* and MLT are presented, along with potential sources driving these variations.

We analyzed the contribution of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave driven electron loss to a flux dropout event in September 2017. The evolution of electron phase space density (PSD) through the dropout showed the formation of a radially peaked PSD profile as electrons were lost at high L*, resembling distributions created by magnetopause shadowing. By comparing 2D Fokker Planck simulations of pitch angle diffusion to the observed change in PSD, we found that the μ and K of electron loss aligned with maximum scattering rates at dropout onset. We conclude that, during this dropout event, EMIC waves produced substantial electron loss. Because pitch angle diffusion occurred on closed drift paths near the last closed drift shell, no radial PSD minimum was observed. Therefore, the radial PSD gradients resembled solely magnetopause shadowing loss, even though the local pitch angle scattering produced electron losses of several orders of magnitude of the PSD.

Loss mechanisms act independently or in unison to drive rapid loss of electrons in the radiation belts. Electrons may be lost by precipitation into the Earth’s atmosphere, or through the magnetopause into interplanetary space; a process known as magnetopause shadowing. Whilst magnetopause shadowing is known to produce dropouts in electron flux, it is unclear if shadowing continues to remove particles in tandem with electron acceleration processes, limiting the overall flux increase. We investigated the contribution of shadowing to overall radiation belt fluxes throughout a geomagnetic storm starting on the 7 September 2017. We use new, multi-spacecraft phase space density calculations to decipher electron dynamics during each storm phase and identify features of magnetopause shadowing during both the net-loss and the net-acceleration storm phases. We also highlight two distinct types of shadowing; ‘direct’, where electrons are lost as their orbit intersects the magnetopause, and ‘indirect’, where electrons are lost through ULF wave driven radial transport towards the magnetopause boundary.

Field-aligned currents (FACs), or the system of currents flowing along Earth’s magnetic field lines, are the dominant form of energy and momentum exchange between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. FACs are ubiquitous across the high-latitude region and have unique characteristics depending on the magnetospheric or solar wind source mechanism, and, therefore, mapping location in the ionosphere (i.e. auroral zone, polar cap, cusp). Further complicating the picture, FACs also exhibit a large range of spatial and temporal scales. In order to create new understanding of FAC spatial and temporal scales, their cross-scale effects, and the impact on the polar region, including on critical technologies, new data analysis approaches are required. This talk addresses a coherent progression of investigation in three parts: 1) an exploration of the characteristics, controlling parameters, and relationships of multiscale FACs using a rigorous, comprehensive analysis across multiple spacecraft observations; 2) augmentation of these statistical results with detailed case studies, fusing observations from diverse platforms and incorporating critical information about the high-latitude electrodynamics across scales; and 3) a quantitative investigation of the impact on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals. We find that the relationships between FAC scales are complex and reveal new information about the connection between multiscale FACs and irregular space weather activity. Additionally, there are observable signatures of multiscale FACs and resultant electrodynamic activity in ionospheric data from GNSS signals, suggesting that these signals are affected distinctly according to scale size of the coupling process. Our results indicate that GNSS data may be a powerful source of information about the multiscale near Earth space environment.

We examine the average evolution of precipitation-induced height-integrated conductances, along with field-aligned currents, in the nightside sector of the polar cap over the course of a substorm. Conductances are estimated from the average energy flux and mean energies derived from auroral emission data. Data are binned using a superposed epoch analysis on a normalised time grid based on the time between onset and recovery phase ($\delta$t) of each contributing substorm. We also examine conductances using a fixed time binning of width 0.25 hr. We split the data set by magnetic latitude of onset. We find that the highest conductances are observed for substorms with onsets that occur between 63 and 65 degrees magnetic latitude, peaking at around 11 mho (Hall) and 4.8 mho (Pedersen). Substorms with onsets at higher magnetic latitudes show lower conductances and less variability. Changes in conductance over the course of a substorm appear primarily driven by changes (about 40% at onset) in the average energy flux, rather than the average energy of the precipitation. Average energies increase after onset slower than energy flux, later these energies decrease slowly for the lowest latitude onsets. No clear expansion of the main region 1 and region 2 field-aligned currents is observed. However, we do see an ordering of the current magnitudes with magnetic latitude of onset, particularly for region 1 downwards FAC in the morning sector. Peak current magnitudes occur slightly after or before the start of the recovery phase for the normalised and fixed-time grids.

We study 10 years (1995-2004 inclusive) of auroral kilometric radiation (AKR) radio emission data from the Wind spacecraft to examine the link between AKR and terrestrial substorms. We use substorm lists based on parameters including ground magnetometer signatures and geosynchronous particle injections as a basis for superposed epoch analyses of the AKR data. The results for each list show a similar, clear response of the AKR power around substorm onset. For nearly all event lists, the average response shows that the AKR power begins to increase around 20 minutes prior to expansion phase onset, as defined by the respective lists. The analysis of the spectral parameters of AKR bursts show that this increase in power is due to an extension of the source region to higher altitudes, which also precedes expansion phase onset by 20 minutes. Our observations show that the minimum frequency channel that observes AKR at this time, on average, is 60 kHz. AKR visibility is highly sensitive to observing spacecraft location, and the biggest radio response to substorm onset is seen in the 2100 - 0300 hr LT sector.