Relativistic electron enhancements; Simultaneous measurements from synchronous and low altitude satellites | CU Experts

We present here for the first time simultaneous measurements of trapped relativistic electron enhancements at synchronous altitude and precipitating electrons in the bounce loss cone at low altitudes. The measurements show that the daily variations in the precipitation flux for L > 5 correlated well with the daily variations in the total flux at high altitude, both with respect to sudden enhancements as well as flux depletions. The daily averaged precipitating flux (E > 1 MeV) at L=6.1 to 7.1 was about 0.3 percent of the daily averaged directional flux (E ≥ 1.5 MeV) observed at synchronous altitude, whereas within narrow spikes the precipitating directional fluxes were often within a factor of 10 of the daily averaged trapped fluxes. Strong depletions in the synchronous altitude ≥1.5 MeV electron intensities are shown to be associated with low altitude measurements of the equatorward movement of precipitating spikes to lower L shells.

VIVO