SM14C-08
Electron Radiation Belt Dropouts in the Absence of Geomagnetic Storms
Monday, 14 December 2015: 17:24
2018 (Moscone West)
Steven Morley1, Michael G Henderson1, John T Steinberg2, Drew L Turner3 and Wen Li4, (1)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (2)Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (3)Aerospace Corporation El Segundo, El Segundo, CA, United States, (4)University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Abstract:
Most observational studies of electron radiation belt dropouts have presented losses occurring during geomagnetic storms. Some statistical analyses of flux dropouts have included non-storm time events, but examples of non-storm time dropouts are still rarities in the literature. A small, but growing, body of work has led to the current understanding that radiation belt dynamics are not always coupled with geomagnetic storms, and that a number of key features are associated with dropouts: solar wind dynamic pressure tends to be high; the interplanetary magnetic field tends to be southward. We present three case studies of dropouts that occurred under quiet geomagnetic conditions and examine the dynamics of the electron phase spece density, and flux, over a wide range of L using Van Allen Probes and other satellites. The solar wind driving each dropout is shown to have a different categorization, and we investigate the role of substorms in non-storm time radiation belt dynamics.
