Geophysical Research Letters (Apr 2024)

Distribution of Seed Electron Phase Space Density Minima in Earth's Radiation Belts

  • A. Y. Drozdov,
  • H. J. Allison,
  • A. A. Saikin,
  • Q. Schiller,
  • D. Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL108028
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 51, no. 7
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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Abstract We conducted a statistical analysis of local phase space density (PSD) minima across a wide energy range (∼20 keVs to ∼10 MeV), using observations from the Van Allen Probes and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. We identified deepening minima in PSD profiles of multi‐MeV (∼5% occurrence) and of “seed” electrons (up to 15% occurrence, corresponding to ∼70–100 s keV) and compared their distribution with a 3D diffusion model using the Versatile Electron Radiation Belts (VERB) code. The comparison of the observed and modeled distributions suggests that the PSD minima of seed electrons are likely associated with hiss waves and the corresponding L‐shell dependent electron lifetimes. However, the observed distribution was not fully reproduced by the model, potentially indicating other fast loss mechanisms of seed electrons.

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