Relativistic electron loss investigation from multiple LANL GPS and GEO, HEO and NOAA Spacecraft

Losses are the most dominant feature during the onset-phase of geomagnetic storms, and strong wave-particle interactions are as part of many of the proposed acceleration mechanism, which often leads to losses of particles. From existing measurements in the drift-loss cone at low altitude it is known that energetic electron precipitation increases during active times, but it is not known whether this increase is due to increased loss rates or simply an overall increase in the radiation belt population. Furthermore, several of the wave particle interaction processes that may be responsible for both losses and acceleration of are thought to exhibit strong local time preferences - dawn to midnight for whistler chorus, afternoon to dusk for EMIC waves, and are active during different phases of a geomagnetic storm. We can test these hypotheses directly. Here we intend to use low altitude data from the recent NOAA spacecraft that sample the radiation belts 14 times a day at 4 different local times separated roughly by 6 hours. These spacecraft sample the local electron population in two directions, which for most regions yields a measurement close to the loss cone and one close to the locally mirroring population. By investigating the RATIO of these two detectors we can determine the times during which there are more precipitating versus trapped particles. We intend to compare our results to the in-situ equatorial observations from HEO (near L=2), LANL GPS (near L=4) and LANL GEO (near L=6.6), which can sample the full trapped distribution.