Journal article
Comparison of Energetic Electron Fluxes Measured by GPS and THEMIS Spacecraft in the Inner Magnetosphere
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, v 127(10), e2022JA030724
Oct 2022
Abstract
Key elements of space weather models are energetic electron fluxes in the inner magnetosphere and the outer radiation belt. Flux depletion is driven by various loss processes: scattering into atmosphere, magnetopause shadowing. Flux enhancement is driven by various acceleration processes: local wave-particle interactions, radial transport, plasma sheet injections. Many of these processes operate on similar to hour timescales. Such mesoscale flux variations are not well traced by equatorial spacecraft with much longer orbits. Energetic electron detectors onboard the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation provide a unique opportunity for probing such similar to hour-scale flux variations. Measurements from up to 23 identically instrumented GPS satellites cover a wide energy and L-shell range with a subhour time resolution. However, their orbits are inclined and thus all measurements at L-shell >4.3 are off-equatorial. In this report, we present a comparison of equatorial THEMIS and nonequatorial GPS measurements of omnidirectional <= 600 keV electron fluxes. Such a comparison allows us to derive coefficients for using off-equatorial GPS fluxes to infer the equatorial values. These coefficients depend on particle energy and L-shell. We demonstrate a new data set derived from GPS measurements and discuss how it can be used to investigate mesoscale dynamics of energetic electron fluxes in the inner magnetosphere.
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Details
- Title
- Comparison of Energetic Electron Fluxes Measured by GPS and THEMIS Spacecraft in the Inner Magnetosphere
- Publication Details
- JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, v 127(10), e2022JA030724
- Publisher
- AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION; WASHINGTON
- Grant note
- We acknowledge support by NASA awards 80NSSC20K1578 (A.V.A., D.L.V.). We thank the GPS CXD team at Los Alamos National Laboratory for design, operation, processing and public release of the GPS energetic charged particle data. Contributions by S.K.M. were performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy. We acknowledge the support of NASA contract NAS5-02099 for use of data from the THEMIS Mission (A.V.A., V.A.). A.C.K acknowledges support from NASA awards 80NSSC20K1402 and 80NSSC20K1281, and NSF award 2149782.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000863597400001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85142809643
- Other Identifier
- 991021861174804721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Astronomy & Astrophysics