Evidence for injection of relativistic electrons into the Earth\textquoterights outer radiation belt via intense substorm electric fields

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Abstract
Observation and model results accumulated in the last decade indicate that substorms can promptly inject relativistic \textquoteleftkiller\textquoteright electrons (>=MeV) in addition to 10\textendash100 keV subrelativistic populations. Using measurements from Cluster, Polar, LANL, and GOES satellites near the midnight sector, we show in two events that intense electric fields, as large as 20 mV/m, associated with substorm dipolarization are associated with injections of relativistic electrons into the outer radiation belt. Enhancements of hundreds of keV electrons at dipolarization in the magnetotail can account for the injected MeV electrons through earthward transport. These observations provide evidence that substorm electric fields inject relativistic electrons by transporting magnetotail electrons into the outer radiation belt. In these two events, injected relativistic electrons dominated the substorm timescale enhancement of MeV electrons as observed at geosynchronous orbit.
Year of Publication
2014
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
41
Number of Pages
1133-1141
Date Published
02/2014
URL
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/2014GL059228
DOI
10.1002/2014GL059228
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