Chorus wave power at the strong diffusion limit overcomes electron losses due to strong diffusion.

ABSTRACT: Earth's radiation belts consist of high-energy charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field. Strong pitch angle diffusion of electrons caused by wave-particle interaction in Earth's radiation belts has primarily been considered as a loss process, as trapped electrons are rapidly diffused into the loss cone and lost to the atmosphere. However, the wave power necessary to produce strong diffusion should also produce rapid energy diffusion, and has not been considered in this context. Here we provide evidence of strong diffusion using satellite data. We use two-dimensional Fokker-Planck simulations of electron diffusion in pitch angle and energy to show that scaling up chorus wave power to the strong diffusion limit produces rapid acceleration of electrons, sufficient to outweigh the l

SUBMITTER: Daggitt TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10899562 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature