The radiation belt energetic electrons that are trapped by the geomagnetic field are one kind of space plasma and magnetic fluid. We quantitatively study the competition process between source and loss processes of radiation belt “source” (a few to tens of keV), “seed” (hundreds of keV), and “relativistic” (>1 MeV) electrons when a typical magnetic cloud (MC) event impinged on the magnetosphere on 19–20 July 2016. A very weak geomagnetic storm with SymHmin = −32 nT was driven by this magnetic cloud event. With the MC-driven shock arrival, the relativistic electrons experienced a “one-kick” energization at lower L-shells while having a moderate dropout at higher L-shells. The dropout became pronounced during the weak storm main phase. However, the seed electrons had a slight depletion after the shock and recovered to the pre-event level in the main phase, while the source electrons continued increasing during the entire event. Further analysis demonstrates that the loss processes (magnetopause shadowing and ultralow-frequency waves-driven outward transport) were competing with the source processes (shock-induced energization, substorm ejections, and wave–particle interactions), which are strongly sensitive to electron energy and L-shells. It is found that L*= ∼ 4 and μ = 102–102.5 MeV/G could be typical values at which the source and loss processes arrived at dynamic equilibrium. Our study first provides the “balance lines” in both energy channels and L* of the radiation belt source, seed, and relativistic electrons in response to magnetic cloud events. The quantitative results could be a key factor when investigating MC–magnetosphere coupling.
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February 2024
Research Article|
February 06 2024
Competition between the source and loss processes of radiation belt source, seed, and relativistic electrons induced by a magnetic cloud event Available to Purchase
Zhengyang Zou (邹正洋)
;
Zhengyang Zou (邹正洋)
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology
, Macau, China
2
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Numerical Prediction for Space Storm, Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology
, Shenzhen, China
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Pingbing Zuo (左平兵)
;
Pingbing Zuo (左平兵)
a)
(Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
2
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Numerical Prediction for Space Storm, Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology
, Shenzhen, China
3
Key Laboratory of Solar Activity and Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing, China
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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Binbin Ni (倪彬彬)
;
Binbin Ni (倪彬彬)
(Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
4
Department of Space Physics, School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University
, Wuhan, Hubei, China
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Jiayun Wei (魏佳筠)
;
Jiayun Wei (魏佳筠)
(Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft)
2
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Numerical Prediction for Space Storm, Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology
, Shenzhen, China
3
Key Laboratory of Solar Activity and Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing, China
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Wentao Zhou (周文涛);
Wentao Zhou (周文涛)
(Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology
, Macau, China
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Hanyu Huang (黄瀚宇)
;
Hanyu Huang (黄瀚宇)
(Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology
, Macau, China
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Yanqiong Xie (解妍琼)
Yanqiong Xie (解妍琼)
(Methodology, Software, Writing – review & editing)
5
College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology
, Changsha, Hunan, China
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Wentao Zhou (周文涛)
1
Yanqiong Xie (解妍琼)
5
1
State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology
, Macau, China
2
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Numerical Prediction for Space Storm, Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology
, Shenzhen, China
3
Key Laboratory of Solar Activity and Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing, China
4
Department of Space Physics, School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University
, Wuhan, Hubei, China
5
College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology
, Changsha, Hunan, China
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
Physics of Fluids 36, 026603 (2024)
Article history
Received:
November 07 2023
Accepted:
January 09 2024
Citation
Zhengyang Zou, Pingbing Zuo, Binbin Ni, Jiayun Wei, Wentao Zhou, Hanyu Huang, Yanqiong Xie; Competition between the source and loss processes of radiation belt source, seed, and relativistic electrons induced by a magnetic cloud event. Physics of Fluids 1 February 2024; 36 (2): 026603. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0186605
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