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Geomagnetic Activity & its various consequences on the Radiation Belts


March 9, 2018, 3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Geology 6704

Presented By:
Dr. Didier Mourenas
Commissariat Energie Atomique (CEA), DAM, DIF, France

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Since the advent of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century, our rapidly progressing technological society has only become more and more vulnerable to the multiple hazards associated with strong magnetic storms. In the past decades, intense storms have caused the loss of various satellites, wreaked havoc on the electric power grid, and interrupted operational long-range radio communications. More than half of all geomagnetic storms are followed by significant flux enhancements of MeV “satellite killer” electrons. Such electron fluxes can seriously damage satellite electronic equipment, especially onboard upcoming satellites that will use solar electric propulsion on geostationary transfer orbits and will consequently spend half a year in the heart of the outer radiation belt, where only hardened GPS and scientific spacecraft have usually been orbiting. Various works have demonstrated that strong relativistic electron flux enhancements in the heart of the outer radiation belt mainly result from a combination of local acceleration by whistler mode chorus waves and inward radial diffusion by ultra-low-frequency waves. This presentation is devoted to consideration of relativistic electron generation and shall address four questions: Is it feasible to forecast the effects of geomagnetic activity on the Radiation Belts and satellites through usual Dst or Kp/ap indices? How are MeV electron flux increases happening? Can we derive scaling laws for the inner structure of the Radiation Belts based on the traditional quasi-linear diffusion paradigm? Are traditional quasi-linear diffusion codes of the Radiation Belts challenged by many recent observations of very intense chorus waves during periods of high geomagnetic activity?