Investigating the upper and lower energy cutoffs of EMIC-wave driven precipitation events

摘要

For some time theoretical modelling has shown that electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves should play an important role in the loss of relativistic electrons from the radiation belts, through precipitation of the electrons into the polar ionosphere. However, there are limited direct experimental observations of relativistic electron precipitation occurring, despite the indirect evidence for its importance. We report on a study that determines the typical flux impacting the ionospheric D-region during EMIC-driven precipitation events, and the effect this has on ionospheric conditions. We examine a very large set of EMIC-driven electron precipitation events detected using data from the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) constellation [1] and determine the typical precipitating electron and proton fluxes and associated energy cutoffs.