Simulations of the Dynamics of the Coupled Energetic and Relativistic Electrons Using VERB Code

Abstract:

Modeling and understanding of ring current and radiation belt coupled system has been a grand challenge since the beginning of the space age. In this study we show long term simulations with a 3D VERB code of modeling the radiation belts with boundary conditions derived from observations around geosynchronous orbit. We also present 4D VERB simulations that include convective transport, radial diffusion, pitch angle scattering and local acceleration. VERB simulations show that the lower energy inward transport is dominated by the convection and higher energy transport is dominated by the diffusive radial transport. We also show that at energies of 100s of keV a number of processes work simultaneously including convective transport, radial diffusion, local acceleration, loss to the loss cone and loss to the magnetopause. The results of the simulaiton of March 2013 storm are compared with Van Allen Probes observations.