Bibliography
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High-energy radiation belt electrons from CRAND
Author | Selesnick, R.; |
Keywords | inner radiation; electron source from cosmic ray albedo neutron decay |
Abstract | A calculation of the inner radiation belt electron source from cosmic ray albedo neutron decay (CRAND) is described. High-energy electrons are included by Lorentz-transforming the β decay spectrum from the neutron rest frame to the Earth\textquoterights rest frame and combining with the known high-energy albedo neutron energy spectrum. Balancing the electron source with energy loss to atmospheric neutral atoms and plasma, and with a decay lifetime representative of plasma wave scattering, then provides an estimate of trapped electron intensity. It is well below measured values for low energies, confirming that CRAND is not a significant source of those trapped electrons. For kinetic energies above the maximum β decay energy (E > 0.8 MeV) a power law energy spectrum \~E-4 is predicted. For L = 1.5 and inline image MeV the computed omnidirectional trapped electron intensity exceeds an extrapolation of the measured low-energy exponential energy spectrum. |
Year of Publication | 2015 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics |
Volume | |
Number of Pages | |
Section | |
Date Published | 03/2015 |
ISBN | |
URL | http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/2014JA020963 |
DOI | 10.1002/2014JA020963 |