Thermospheric Neutral Winds: A Driver of the Earth’s Inner Radiation Belt to Be Reckoned With
- 1University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, USA (solene@berkeley.edu)
- 2CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- 3NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Boulder, CO, USA
- 4Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, NM, USA
Neutral winds have long been viewed as a driver of Jupiter’s radiation belts. On the other hand, the impact of thermospheric neutral winds in driving plasma dynamics in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere is yet to be quantified. We now have the appropriate combination of data and physics-based model to address this fundamental science question.
In this work, we revisit the local time asymmetry of the equatorial electron intensity observed in the innermost radiation belt (L=1.30). We combine in-situ field and particle observations, together with a physics-based coupled model, RCM-CTIPe, to determine whether the dynamo electric fields produced by tidal motion of upper atmospheric winds flowing across the Earth’s magnetic field lines are the main drivers of the drift-shell distortion observed in the Earth’s inner radiation belt.
Our results provide a first quantification of the contribution of the neutral wind in transporting the trapped energetic particles of the Earth’s inner radiation belt.
How to cite: Lejosne, S., Maruyama, N., Selesnick, R. S., and Fedrizzi, M.: Thermospheric Neutral Winds: A Driver of the Earth’s Inner Radiation Belt to Be Reckoned With, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2071, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2071, 2021.
