Relativistic model of ring current and radiation belt ions and electrons: Initial results

Abstract

We present first results from our global drift‐loss model extended to relativistic energies and electrons, investigating the effect of magnetospheric convection and radial diffusion on the storm time injection and trapping of energetic particles during the October 2001 geomagnetic storm. We show that magnetospheric convection is the dominant injection mechanism during the rapid main phase creating a very asymmetric ring current distribution for both ions and electrons. Radial diffusion injects particles with higher energies (≥80 keV) deep into the magnetosphere (L < 4) and increases the total ring current energy content by about 15% near minimum Dst, causing the ring current to become symmetric only during the storm recovery phase. We evaluate the electron contribution to the ring current during this storm and find it highly variable, being small (∼2%) during quiet time and the largest near Dst peaks, resulting in ∼10% of the total ring current ion energy content.