Dynamics of the ring current and ion fluxes at low altitudes during the February 27–28, 2014 magnetic storm

Abstract

A comparative analysis has been performed for the dynamics of the ring current and ion fluxes at low altitudes during the February 27, 2014 geomagnetic storm. We use concurrent experimental data on ion fluxes with an energy of ~30 to 250 keV in the near-equatorial magnetospheric region at altitudes up to 30000 km from the Van Allen Probes satellite and at a polar orbit up to 1000 km from the Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). The main phase of the storm was characterized by increased ion fluxes with E 100 keV, both near the ring current and in the low-orbit equatorial region, reflecting the fact that the particle spectrum of the ring current in the main phase of the storm becomes softed. The observed phenomenon may originate from the precipitation of ring-current particles registered by POES below the isotropization boundary. It was shown that the variations in ion fluxes at low orbit during the geomagnetic storm generally reflect the ring current dynamics, although each region under consideration has its own specific features complementing the general pattern of the Earth’s magnetosphere dynamics.