Spatial Scale and Duration of One Microburst Region on 13 August 2015

Prior studies of microburst precipitation have largely relied on estimates of the spatial scale and temporal duration of the microburst region in order to determine the radiation belt loss rate of relativistic electrons. These estimates have often relied on the statistical distribution of microburst events. However, few studies have directly observed the spatial and temporal evolution of a single microburst event. In this study, we combine BARREL balloon-borne X-ray measurements with FIREBIRD-II and AeroCube-6 CubeSat electron measurements to determine the spatial and temporal evolution of a microburst region in the morning MLT sector on 13 August 2015. The microburst region is found to extend across at least four hours in local time in the morning sector, from 09:00 to 13:00 MLT, and from L of 5 out to 10. The microburst event lasts for nearly nine hours. Smaller scale structure is investigated using the dual AeroCube-6 CubeSats, and is found to be consistent with the spatial size of whistler mode chorus wave observations near the equatorial plane.