Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm23c..01h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM23C-01
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7845] Space Plasma Physics / Particle Acceleration
Scientific paper
The original ideas to explain the origin and structure of the Earth’s radiation belts have been relatively successful during quiet geomagnetic activity, but they simply cannot explain the dynamic behaviour of the radiation belts observed during storms and other solar driven disturbances. Over the last few years new evidence suggests that there must be other physical processes that are operating inside the magnetosphere and this has stimulated a wealth of new ideas. In this overview we will focus on some of the outstanding scientific problems that need to be addressed. We will discuss why the radiation belts respond so differently to different geomagnetic storms and fast solar wind streams, the different ways in which electrons could be accelerated to MeV energies, how a radiation belt could be formed within 2 minutes, and what mechanisms could be responsible for the large depletions in electron flux that occur during geomagnetic storms. We will discuss whether large amplitude waves and non-linear wave-particle interactions could be more important than has been considered so far for acceleration and loss. We will also discuss some of the mechanisms that could transport electrons across the radiation belts, including non-diffusive as well as diffusive radial transport and the role of electric fields. We will consider whether these or other mechanisms could explain increases in the electron flux in the slot region. We will discuss some of the ways in which the ring current could affect electron radiation belt dynamics. New satellite missions including RBSP, ERG, RESONANCE, DSX and ORBITALS, are being designed to address these problems. We will comment on the difficulty to find evidence to prove or disprove these physical processes, or rank them in order, and the challenge for modelling studies, which only address a subset of these problems, for years to come.
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