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The Effect of Plasma Boundaries on the Dynamic Evolution of Relativistic Radiation Belt Electrons
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  • Dedong Wang,
  • Yuri Y Shprits,
  • Irina S. Zhelavskaya,
  • Frederic Effenberger,
  • Angelica Castillo,
  • Alexander Yurievich Drozdov,
  • Nikita A Aseev,
  • Juan Sebastian Cervantes Villa
Dedong Wang
GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Yuri Y Shprits
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
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Irina S. Zhelavskaya
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre For Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
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Frederic Effenberger
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
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Angelica Castillo
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
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Alexander Yurievich Drozdov
University of California Los Angeles
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Nikita A Aseev
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
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Juan Sebastian Cervantes Villa
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
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Abstract

Understanding the dynamic evolution of relativistic electrons in the Earth’s radiation belts during both storm and non-storm times is a challenging task. The U.S. National Science Foundation’s Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) focus group “Quantitative Assessment of Radiation Belt Modeling” (QARBM) has selected two storm time and two non-storm time events that occurred during the second year of the Van Allen Probes mission for in-depth study. Here, we perform simulations for these GEM challenge events using the 3-Dimensional Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB-3D) code. We set up the outer $L^*$ boundary using data from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and validate the simulation results against satellite observations from both the GOES and Van Allen Probe missions for 0.9 MeV electrons. Our results show that the position of the plasmapause plays a significant role in the dynamic evolution of relativistic electrons. The magnetopause shadowing effect is included by using last closed drift shell (LCDS), and it is shown to significantly contribute to the dropouts of relativistic electrons at high $L^*$.
May 2020Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 125 issue 5. 10.1029/2019JA027422