Injections of MeV particles via intense substorm electric fields

Lei Dai, John Wygant and EFW team.EFW/BARREL Science team meeting, June, 2014

Minnesota

RBSP unusual MeV particle injectionModerate Storm, main phase, DST:-10 ~-30

RBSP unusual MeV particle injectionModerate Storm,recovery phase, DST:-30 ~-20

Orbit of RBSP-A and THEMIS D

April-26, 2013 event

RBSP-ATHEMIS D

electron injection signals, as large as 2MeV electrons at RBSP-A and >700keV at THEMIS D.

April-26, 2013 event Ion injection signals, as large as MeV ions at RBSP-A and >700keV at THEMIS D.

The role of electric fields in injections

1. Acceleration mechanism that conserves the first adiabatic invariant.

a) Guiding center drift in large scale electric fields. b) Betatron acceleration associated with inductive electric fields (Db/Dt)

that could be very localized.

2. Other non-adiabatic acceleration mechanisms.

END

Backup slides

Unusual MeV particle injection

Unusual MeV relativistic injection during intense (as large as 10s mV/m) substorm electric fields

The injected MeV particles dominate the substorm-time scale increases in relativistic electrons at geosynchronous orbit.

The physics of MeV particle injection.

PSD comparison

Energization through conservation of the first adiabatic invariant