Solar cycle variations of trapped proton flux in the inner radiation belt

Abstract

AbstractTrapped proton population in the inner radiation belt is highly dense, posing a potential danger to astronauts and man‐made space assets traversing through this region. While being significantly stable within timescales up to hundreds of days, inner zone proton fluxes can exhibit considerable solar cycle variations, which has not been investigated comprehensively yet. To analyze the long‐term variation of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), we adopt the proton flux data measured by NOAA 15 from 1999 through 2009 and perform statistical analyses on the basis of reasonable Gaussian fits. We report that the variation of the peak proton flux in the SAA is anticorrelated with that of F10.7 during a solar cycle. There also exists a phase lag of 685 days between the solar F10.7 flux and the proton flux. Similar features are seen for changes of the SAA distribution area, which in addition shows a rapid decrease during the solar maximum and a slow increase during the solar minimum. We also find that the region where the proton flux peaks drifts westward year by year with larger drift rates during the solar minimum. The peak region shifts southward during the solar maximum but in the opposite direction during the solar minimum with higher shift speed. Enhancements in solar wind dynamic pressure can favor the north‐south drift of the SAA.