Comparing Deep Dropouts of Relativistic Electron Fluxes with Geomagnetic Storms and Coronal Mass Ejections

Physics

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2162 Solar Cycle Variations (7536), 2169 Sources Of The Solar Wind, 2716 Energetic Particles, Precipitating, 2788 Storms And Substorms, 7513 Coronal Mass Ejections

Scientific paper

High fluxes of relativistic (> 1 MeV) electrons in the outer radiation belt are a recognized hazard to spacecraft in geosynchronous orbits through mechanisms such as deep dielectric charging. It is also known that the electron flux levels can be highly variable and do not always track geomagnetic activity, such as during large storms (e.g., Reeves et al., 2003). It has been noted that very deep dropouts or decreases down to low magnetic L shells of the population of electrons sometimes occur during intense storms driven by strong magnetic cloud/coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Two nice examples are during the late Oct. and late Nov. storms in 2003. We used daily-averaged flux data from the AFRL CEASE detector onboard the TSX5 satellite in LEO orbit to identify periods of deep dropouts from July 2000 to the present. We searched for uniform dropouts in the E > 1.2 MeV electron channel having fluxes < 0.1 electrons/cm**2 sec sr extending below L = 4. The dropout events were first identified visually on color plots and then by the quantitative criterion that the flux drop by a factor of 10 or more from one day to the next. About 40 events met these criteria and 75% of these occurred during geomagnetic storms with peak Dst < -50nT. Most of these stormtime dropout event-storms were driven by the strong southward solar wind magnetic fields associated with CMEs. We will discuss these results in terms of solar wind drivers of electron flux loss in the radiation belts.

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