Microburst Spatial Size Distribution Derived Using The AeroCube-6 CubeSats
Abstract
Microbursts are an impulsive increase of electrons from the radiation belts into the atmosphere and have been directly observed in low Earth orbit and the upper atmosphere. Prior work has estimated that microbursts are capable of rapidly depleting the radiation belt electrons on the order of a day, hence their role to radiation belt electron losses must be considered. Losses due to microbursts are not well constrained, and more work is necessary to accurately quantify their contribution as a loss process. To address this question we present a statistical study of > 35 keV microburst sizes using the pair of AeroCube-6 CubeSats. The microburst size distribution in low Earth orbit and the magnetic equator was derived. In low Earth orbit, the majority of microbursts were observed while the AC6 separation was less than a few tens of km. To account for the statistical effects of random microburst locations and sizes, a Monte Carlo and analytic models were developed to test a hypothesized microburst size distribution. A family of microburst size distributions were tested and a Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler was used to estimate the optimal distribution of the microburst size model parameters. Finally, a majority of observed microbursts map to sizes less then 200 km at the magnetic equator. The observed equatorial microburst sizes correlate with coherent whistler mode chorus sizes derived in prior literature. This conclusion further supports the hypothesis that microbursts are generated by wave-particle interactions with whistler mode chorus waves.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMSM51I3291S
- Keywords:
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- 2720 Energetic particles: trapped;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 2730 Magnetosphere: inner;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 2753 Numerical modeling;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 2774 Radiation belts;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS