Observation of relativistic electron precipitation during a rapid decrease of trapped relativistic electron flux
Abstract
We present the first quantitative comparison of precipitating and geomagnetically trapped electron flux during a relativistic electron depletion event. Intense bremsstrahlung X-ray emission from relativistic electron precipitation was observed on January 19-20, 2000 (21:20-00:45 UT) by the germanium spectrometer on the MAXIS balloon payload (-7.2 to -9.3 E, 74 S corresponding to IGRF L = 4.7, 1920-2240 MLT). A rapid decrease in the geosynchronous >2 MeV electron flux was simultaneously observed at GOES-8 and GOES-10, and between 0.34-3.6 MeV by GPS ns33 at L = 4.7. The observations show that electrons were lost to the atmosphere early in the flux depletion event, during a period of magnetic field stretching in the tail. The observed X-ray spectrum is well modeled by an exponential distribution of precipitating electrons with an e-folding energy of 290 keV and a lower-energy cut-off of 400 keV. The duration of the event implies precipitation extended over at least 3 hours of MLT, assuming a source fixed in local time. Comparison of the precipitation rate with the flux decrease measured at GPS implies that the loss cone flux was only ~1% of the equatorial flux. However, precipitation is sufficient to account for the rate of flux decrease if it extended over 2-3 hours of local time.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- May 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1029/2006GL028653
- Bibcode:
- 2007GeoRL..3410101M
- Keywords:
-
- Magnetospheric Physics: Energetic particles: precipitating;
- Magnetospheric Physics: Energetic particles: trapped;
- Magnetospheric Physics: Radiation belts;
- Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere: inner