Sky-distribution of intensity of synchrotron radio emission of relativistic electrons trapped in Earth’s magnetic field

Abstract

This paper presents the calculations of synchrotron radio emission intensity from Van Allen belts with Gaussian space distribution of electron density across L-shells of a dipole magnetic field, and with Maxwell’s relativistic electron energy distribution. The results of these calculations come to a good agreement with measurements of the synchrotron emission intensity of the artificial radiation belt’s electrons during the Starfish nuclear test. We have obtained two-dimensional distributions of radio brightness in azimuth — zenith angle coordinates for an observer on Earth’s surface. The westside and eastside intensity maxima exceed several times the maximum level of emission in the meridian plane. We have also constructed two-dimensional distributions of the radio emission intensity in decibels related to the background galactic radio noise level. Isotropic fluxes of relativistic electrons (Е~1 MeV) should be more than 107 cm–2s–1 for the synchrotron emission intensity in the meridian plane to exceed the cosmic noise level by 0.1 dB (riometer sensitivity threshold).

Keywords

• synchrotron radio emission
• relativistic electrons
• radiation belt
• dipole magnetic field