Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsm42c0624c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SM42C-0624
Other
2730 Magnetosphere: Inner, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities
Scientific paper
Gamma ray observations from the BATSE experiment on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory indicate that some gamma ray bursts originate in the Earth's atmosphere near large scale thunderstorm systems. It is believed that these gamma ray bursts consist of bremsstrahling from relativistic electrons accelerated to MeV energies by the intense quasi-static electric fields which temporarily exist above thunderclouds after intense positive cloud to ground discharges. If so, most of these relativistic electrons would escape the atmosphere and enter the Earth's radiation belts without much loss of energy. In the radiation belts the relativistic electron beam will interact with the cold background plasma through the two-stream instability, and some of the relativistic electrons may become trapped in the radiation belts. In the present paper we carry out a theoretical analysis of how relativistic electron beams, which form in the earth's atmosphere, can couple to the magnetosphere. The primary motivation for this study is to assess the contribution of this phenomenon to the relativistic electron population in the inner radiation belts. The interaction of the beam and the cold magnetoplasma results in changes in the beam's velocity distribution. We use 1D and 2D electromagnetic, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulators to calculate the evolution of the beam's velocity and pitch angle distributions. We first study the 1D electrostatic interactions for a full traverse of the beam through the magnetosphere for a given L shell and initial beam density. We then assess the importance of other electromagnetic beam/plasma interactions with our 2D model. On the basis of these interaction models, we estimate the fraction of the original relativistic electron beam which can be trapped in the radiation belts. Our analysis is carried out for a range of initial beam densities and L shell values.
Bell Timothy F.
Chevalier M. W.
Inan Umran S.
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