Large--Amplitude Magnetospheric Energetic Electron Flux Events

Using the SAMPEX database from 1993--2000, we consider the statistics and solar--wind driving of large--amplitude energetic electron flux events in the L--shell range of 2<L<8. A superposed epoch study of large events is presented that shows a large--flux response to be dependent on both the shape and amplitude of the solar--wind velocity waveform. Motivated by this, we develop a nonlinear response filter that can capture this amplitude dependence. Based on these nonlinear response functions, a search is made for precursors in the solar--wind signal which precede large--amplitude energetic electron events. A method is presented for computing such precursors to large events based on a nonlinear filters driven by time--history of solar wind velocity and IMF measurements.