Combining Radiation Belt Models with Multiple Satellite Observations to Reconstruct the Dynamics of the Radiation Belts Using the 3D VERB Code

Abstract:

In this study, we present 3-D data assimilation using CRRES data and the 3-D Versatile Electron Radiation Belt Model (VERB), which implemented a newly developed operator-splitting method. Simulations with synthetic data show that the operator-splitting Kalman filtering technique proposed in this study can successfully reconstruct the underlying dynamic evolution of the radiation belts. The method is further verified by the comparison with the conventional Kalman filtering. We applied the new approach to 3-D data assimilation of multiple satellite measurements for two time intervals in 1990-1991 and for 2012-2014. At μ = 700 MeV/G, the cross section of the global reanalysis showed a clear peak in the phase space density, while at a lower energy of 70 MeV/G, the profiles are monotonic. Since the radial profiles are obtained from the global reanalysis, the differences in the profiles reflect the differences in the underlying physical processes responsible for the dynamic evolution of the radiation belt’s energetic and relativistic electrons. Automated identification of the errors and smoothing are also discussed. Our results demonstrate that 3D data assimilation in the radiation belt can be used for understanding the dynamics of the radiation belts, improving the specification models, and developing the new generation forecasting models.