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Resolving Magnetopause Shadowing Using Multi-Mission Measurements of Phase Space Density
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  • Frances A Staples,
  • Adam C Kellerman,
  • Kyle Robert Murphy,
  • I. Jonathan Rae,
  • Jasmine Kaur Sandhu,
  • Colin Forsyth
Frances A Staples
Mullard Space Science Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Adam C Kellerman
University of California Los Angeles
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Kyle Robert Murphy
University of Maryland/NASA Goddard
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I. Jonathan Rae
Northumbria University
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Jasmine Kaur Sandhu
Northumbria University
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Colin Forsyth
University College London
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Abstract

Loss mechanisms act independently or in unison to drive rapid loss of electrons in the radiation belts. Electrons may be lost by precipitation into the Earth’s atmosphere, or through the magnetopause into interplanetary space; a process known as magnetopause shadowing. Whilst magnetopause shadowing is known to produce dropouts in electron flux, it is unclear if shadowing continues to remove particles in tandem with electron acceleration processes, limiting the overall flux increase. We investigated the contribution of shadowing to overall radiation belt fluxes throughout a geomagnetic storm starting on the 7 September 2017. We use new, multi-spacecraft phase space density calculations to decipher electron dynamics during each storm phase and identify features of magnetopause shadowing during both the net-loss and the net-acceleration storm phases. We also highlight two distinct types of shadowing; ‘direct’, where electrons are lost as their orbit intersects the magnetopause, and ‘indirect’, where electrons are lost through ULF wave driven radial transport towards the magnetopause boundary.
Feb 2022Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 127 issue 2. 10.1029/2021JA029298