Radial Diffusion study of the 1 June 2013 CME event using MHD simulations.

The June 1, 2013 storm was a CME-shock driven geomagnetic storm (Dst = -119 nT) that caused a dropout affecting all radiation belt electron energies measured by the Energetic Particle, Composition and Thermal Plasma Suite (ECT) instrument on Van Allen Probes at higher L-shells following dynamic pressure enhancement in the solar wind. Lower energies (up to about 700 keV) were enhanced by the storm while MeV electrons were depleted throughout the belt. We focus on depletion through radial diffusion caused by the enhanced ULF wave activity due to the CME-shock. This study utilities the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) model, a 3D global magnetospheric simulation code based on the ideal MHD equations, coupled with the Magnetosphere Ionosphere Coupler (MIX) and Rice Convection Model (RCM). The MHD electric and magnetic fields with equations described by Fei et al. [JGR, 2006] are used to calculate radial diffusion coefficients (DLL). These DLL values are input into a radial diffusion code to recreate the dropouts observed by the Van Allen Probes. The importance of understanding the complex role that ULF waves play in radial transport and the effects of CME-driven storms on the relativistic energy electrons in the radiation belts can be accomplished using MHD simulations to obtain diffusion coefficients, initial phase space density and the outer boundary condition from the ECT instrument suite and a radial diffusion model to reproduce observed fluxes which compare favorably with Van Allen Probes ECT measurements.