Science Goals and Overview of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) Suite on NASA’s Van Allen Probes Mission

Spence, H. E.; Reeves, G. D.; Baker, D. N.; Blake, J. B.; Bolton, M.; Bourdarie, S.; Chan, A. A.; Claudepierre, S. G.; Clemmons, J. H.; Cravens, J.; Elkington, S. R.; Fennell, J. F.; Friedel, R. H.; Funsten, H. O.; Goldstein, J.; Green, J. C.; Guthrie, A.; Henderson, M. G.; Horne, Richard B.; Hudson, M. K.; Jahn, J. M.; Jordanova, V. K.; Kanekal, S.; Klatt, B. W.; Larsen, B.; Li, X.; MacDonald, E.; Mann, I. R.; Niehof, J. T.; O’Brien, T. P.; Onsager, T. G.; Salvaggio, D.; Skoug, R. M.; Smith, S. S.; Suther, L. L.; Thomsen, M. F.; Thorne, R. M.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-7433-4_10

Cited by 255 publications

(269 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The Van Allen Probes operate in an elliptical orbit, with the inclination of 10° and altitude of ∼600 km at perigee and geocentric distance of 5.8 R E at apogee. With the spin axis approximately pointing to the Sun, the spacecraft is spinning with a period of ∼12 s. The MagEIS instrument, as a part of the Energetic Particle Composition and Thermal Plasma Suite (ECT) [ Spence et al , ], provides high‐resolution energetic electron flux measurement with energy range of ∼30–4000 keV. It contains four independent magnetic electron spectrometers on each spacecraft, one low‐energy spectrometer (LOW), two medium energy spectrometers (M75 and M35), and a high‐energy spectrometer (HIGH).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of pitch angle distributions of hundreds of keV electrons in the slot region and inner radiation belt

Zhao

Blake

et al. 2014

JGR Space Physics

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The pitch angle distribution (PAD) of energetic electrons in the slot region and inner radiation belt received little attention in the past decades due to the lack of quality measurements. Using the state-of-the-art pitch angle-resolved data from the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer instrument onboard the Van Allen Probes, a detailed analysis of hundreds of keV electron PADs below L = 4 is performed, in which the PADs are categorized into three types: normal (flux peaking at 90 Fitting the normal PADs into sin n form, the parameter n is much higher below L = 3 than that in the outer belt and relatively constant in the inner belt but changes significantly in the slot region (2 < L < 3) during injection times. As for the 90 • minimum PADs, by performing a detailed case study, we find in the slot region this type of PAD is likely caused by chorus wave heating, but this mechanism can hardly explain the formation of 90• minimum PADs at the center of inner belt.

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of pitch angle distributions of hundreds of keV electrons in the slot region and inner radiation belt

Zhao

Blake

et al. 2014

JGR Space Physics

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“…The Van Allen Probes mission was designed, in part, to make the measurements required to quantitatively test theories of wave generation. The Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) mass spectrometer of the Van Allen Probes mission measures the ion and electron fluxes at each of the two spacecraft within the terrestrial radiation belts over the energy range from 10 eV to 50 keV [ Funsten et al , 2013; Spence et al , 2013]. This energy range encompasses the electrons which are the likely drivers of large-amplitude magnetospheric chorus, which has its source in the whistler anisotropy instability [e.g., MacDonald et al , 2008, and references therein] driven by the electron T ⊥ / T ∥ >1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whistler anisotropy instabilities as the source of banded chorus: Van Allen Probes observations and particle‐in‐cell simulations

et al. 2014

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Magnetospheric banded chorus is enhanced whistler waves with frequencies ωr<Ωe, where Ωe is the electron cyclotron frequency, and a characteristic spectral gap at ωr≃Ωe/2. This paper uses spacecraft observations and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in a magnetized, homogeneous, collisionless plasma to test the hypothesis that banded chorus is due to local linear growth of two branches of the whistler anisotropy instability excited by two distinct, anisotropic electron components of significantly different temperatures. The electron densities and temperatures are derived from Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron instrument measurements on the Van Allen Probes A satellite during a banded chorus event on 1 November 2012. The observations are consistent with a three-component electron model consisting of a cold (a few tens of eV) population, a warm (a few hundred eV) anisotropic population, and a hot (a few keV) anisotropic population. The simulations use plasma and field parameters as measured from the satellite during this event except for two numbers: the anisotropies of the warm and the hot electron components are enhanced over the measured values in order to obtain relatively rapid instability growth. The simulations show that the warm component drives the quasi-electrostatic upper band chorus and that the hot component drives the electromagnetic lower band chorus; the gap at ∼Ωe/2 is a natural consequence of the growth of two whistler modes with different properties.

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“…• Figure S2 • Figure S3 Correspondence (HOPE) mass spectrometers [Funsten et al, 2013;Spence et al, 2013] on board the Van Allen Probes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The complex nature of storm‐time ion dynamics: Transport and local acceleration

Denton

Reeves

Thomsen

et al. 2016

Geophysical Research Letters

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Data from the Van Allen Probes Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) spectrometers reveal hitherto unresolved spatial structure and dynamics in ion populations. Complex regions of O+ dominance, at energies from a few eV to >10 keV, are observed throughout the magnetosphere. Isolated regions on the dayside that are rich in energetic O+ might easily be interpreted as strong energization of ionospheric plasma. We demonstrate, however, that both the energy spectrum and the limited magnetic local time extent of these features can be explained by energy‐dependent drift of particles injected on the nightside 24 h earlier. Particle tracing simulations show that the energetic O+ can originate in the magnetotail, not in the ionosphere. Enhanced wave activity is colocated with the heavy ion‐rich plasma, and we further conclude that the waves were not a source of free energy for accelerating ionospheric plasma but rather the consequence of the arrival of substorm‐injected plasma.

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Science Goals and Overview of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) Suite on NASA’s Van Allen Probes Mission

Cited by 255 publications

References 43 publications

Characteristics of pitch angle distributions of hundreds of keV electrons in the slot region and inner radiation belt

Characteristics of pitch angle distributions of hundreds of keV electrons in the slot region and inner radiation belt

Whistler anisotropy instabilities as the source of banded chorus: Van Allen Probes observations and particle‐in‐cell simulations

The complex nature of storm‐time ion dynamics: Transport and local acceleration

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