Study of spatial and energy characteristics of relativistic electron bursts in magnetosphere with robust methods

Abstract

Electron bursts are well-known phenomena of fast increase in particle fluxes in near-Earth space. Powerful local geophysical events like earthquakes or thunderstorms can induce precipitation of electrons with defined energy spectrum from the radiation belt, which would be registered as fast increase in particle count rate on board the low orbit satellite. Using particle burst energy spectrum evolution in time one can detect the area of particles precipitation. Background particles are registered by instruments too and can't be separated from burst particles. High level of background particles can have large impact on detection of the area of particles precipitation. A robust regression method to solve problem of background particles is introduced and compared with standard method of linear regression. Results of comparison between various data analysis methods in application to study of spatial and energy characteristics of relativistic electron bursts in the Earth magnetosphere are presented in this work. Robust method proved to be optimal for data analysis of energy spectrum evolution in time for search of zones of local radiation belt disturbances.