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The Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) on the two Van Allen Probes spacecraft is the magnetosphere ring current instrument that will provide data for answering the three over-arching questions for the Van Allen Probes Program: RBSPICE will determine “how space weather creates the storm-time ring current around Earth, h...
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Plain Language Summary
Energetic particles are suddenly and abruptly pushed earthward through near‐Earth space via processes called “injections.” These are commonly seen by spacecraft as sudden time‐ and energy‐dependent increases in the number of observed particles and are known to play an important role in sourcing the planet's radiation belts. I...
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Citations
... Our preliminary experiments indicated that including data from Probe A did not significantly enhance model performance while substantially increasing computational time. We use energy channels from 38 to 870 keV, with data from 38 to 52 keV measured by the Helium Oxygen Proton Electron (HOPE) instrument (Funsten et al., 2013), and data from 71 to 870 keV measured by the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) instrument (Mitchell et al., 2013). Data ranges from February 2013 to December 2018, and is reduced to have a time resolution of 1 min Figure 2 shows O + ion fluxes at selected energies versus L-shell and the Sym-H, SME, and F10.7 indices throughout 2017. ...
The ring current is an important component of the Earth's near‐space environment, as its variations are the direct driver of geomagnetic storms that can disrupt power grids, satellite communications, and navigation systems, thereby impacting a wide range of technological and human activities. Oxygen ions (O⁺) are one of the major components of the ring current and play a significant role in both the enhancement and depletion of the ring current during geomagnetic storms. Although a standard statistical study can provide average global distributions of ring current ions, it can't offer insight into the short‐term dynamic variations of the global distribution. Therefore, we employed the Artificial Neural Network technique to construct a global ring current O⁺ ion model based on the Van Allen Probes observations. Through optimization of the combination of input geomagnetic indices and their respective time history lengths, the model can well reproduce the spatiotemporal variation of the oxygen ion flux distributions and demonstrates remarkable accuracy and minimal errors. Additionally, the model effectively reconstructs the temporal variation of ring current O⁺ ions for non‐training set data. Furthermore, the model provides a comprehensive and dynamic representation of global ring current O⁺ ion distribution. It accurately captures the dynamics of O⁺ ions during a geomagnetic storm with the oxygen ion fluxes enhancement and decay, and reveals distinct characteristics for different energy levels, such as injection from the plasma sheet, outflow from the ionosphere, and magnetic local time asymmetry.
... The ground-based observations are obtained from the PWING (study of dynamical variation of Particles and Waves in the Inner magnetosphere using Ground-based network observations) project , which includes magnetometers monitoring Pc1 and Pc2 waves (Shiokawa et al., 2010) and Optical Mesosphere Thermosphere Imagers (OMTI; Shiokawa et al., 1999Shiokawa et al., , 2009 observing auroral emissions. The twin Van Allen Probes (RBSP-A and -B; Mauk et al., 2013) provide nearequatorial observations of the wave source region, with magnetic field data provided by the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) suite (Kletzing et al., 2013) and particle distributions by the Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) Mass Spectrometer (Funsten et al., 2013) and the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE; Mitchell et al., 2013). The low-altitude POES and MetOp satellites, operating at ∼800 km with a sun-synchronous orbital period of ∼100 min, are equipped with Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector (MEPED; Evans & Greer, 2004;Green, 2013) measuring the precipitating and trapped/quasi-trapped particles with a telescope oriented to zenith (0-degree) and the other (90-degree) perpendicular to it (Rodger et al., 2010;Yando et al., 2011). ...
Plain Language Summary
Ground‐based magnetometers often observe geomagnetic field oscillations at various frequencies, among which are Pc1 pulsations within the frequency range of 0.2–5 Hz. It is commonly believed that these pulsations correspond to electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in Earth’s magnetosphere, which are excited by anisotropic distributions of energetic ions. The Pc1/EMIC waves are usually observed to progress westward, and the excursion speed is thought to be determined by the drift velocity of source ions in the geomagnetic dipole field. This relationship is examined in this study based on multi‐point observations of ground‐based magnetic pulsations, auroral emissions, EMIC waves near the equatorial magnetosphere, and energetic particles in space. Ground‐based magnetometers show the westward excursion of Pc1 pulsations at a speed of ∼4–5 magnetic local time per hour, consistent with proton auroral emissions and equatorial spacecraft observations. However, this speed does not match the drift speed of observed source protons in the geomagnetic dipole field. We suggest that this apparent inconsistency can be reconciled after considering the revision of particles' drift motion in the presence of concomitant, localized field depressions in the magnetosphere. This explanation, supported by spacecraft observations, sheds new light on the intricate interactions between geomagnetic disturbances and the behavior of energetic particles.
... The Electric Field and Waves (EFW) instruments measure the electric field at a sampling rate of 32 Hz (Wygant et al., 2014). Omnidirectional electron/proton energy fluxes were measured using Helium, Oxygen, Proton and Electron (HOPE) (Funsten et al., 2013) mass spectrometer and the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) instrument (Mitchell et al., 2013). ...
This study investigates the comprehensive magnetospheric and ionospheric phenomena during a substorm event on 14 December 2013. The methodology involves analyzing data from satellites located within the plasmasphere at dusk‐side of the Earth, as well as data from ionospheric satellites mapped in the subauroral region. Magnetospheric data were analyzed to identify key features during the substorm event. Proton injection into the ring current, presence of proton and helium band electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves with different polarization characteristics, and harmonic structures in these EMIC waves were identified. These harmonic structures coincided with the appearance of magnetosonic waves characterized by rising tone structures and heating of low‐energy protons (<100 eV). Ionospheric satellites (DMSP F17 and POES 15) recorded enhanced proton precipitation contributing to the intensification of subauroral proton arcs. The analysis revealed that these enhanced proton fluxes were associated with variations in field‐aligned currents (FACs) and drove dynamics within the Sub‐Auroral Polarization Streams (SAPS). By combining and analyzing the magnetospheric and ionospheric data sets, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling during substorms, particularly on the duskside. The complex interdependence and causal relationships among EMIC waves, proton precipitation, subauroral proton arcs, FAC variations, and SAPS dynamics were highlighted.
... We employed pitch-angle-resolved electron differential flux data captured by the RBSPICE instrument (Manweiler et al., 2022;Mitchell et al., 2013) on board the Van Allen Probe spacecraft. This spacecraft orbits Earth with a period of ∼9 hr at an inclination of ∼10° (Mauk et al., 2012), scanning plasma populations from a perigee of ∼700 km to an apogee of ∼6 Earth radii (R E ). ...
We examined rapid variations in the electron zebra stripe patterns, specifically at L = 1.5, over a three‐month duration, using twin Van Allen Probes within Earth's inner magnetosphere. During geomagnetically quiet intervals, these stripes exhibit a peak‐to‐valley ratio (Δj) ∼1.25 in detrended electron fluxes. However, during geomagnetic storms, they became highly prominent, with Δj > 2.5. The correlation between Δj and net field‐aligned currents (FACs) is observed to be high (0.70). Global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation results indicate that the westward electric field at midnight at low latitudes in the deep inner magnetosphere correlates well with net FACs. An increase in net FACs could amplify the dawn‐to‐dusk electric field in the deep inner magnetosphere, thereby causing the inward transport of electrons. Given that FACs are linked to the interaction between solar wind and the magnetosphere, our findings emphasize the importance of solar wind‐magnetosphere coupling in the deeper regions of the inner magnetosphere.
... The MagEIS instrument measures electrons over the energy range of ∼30 keV to ∼4 MeV, while REPT provides measurements for highly energetic electrons with energies ranging from ∼1.5 to ∼20 MeV. For energetic protons, we make use of the flux measurements by Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) instrument (Mitchell et al., 2013) with an energy range of 10-600 keV. Figure 1 presents an overview of the energetic electron (left column) and proton (right column) flux evolution during May 27-28, 2017, along Van Allen Probes' orbits. Figures 1a1 and 1a2 show the 1.08 and 4.2 MeV radiation belt electron fluxes at 90° local pitch angle as a function of time and dipole L shell, measured by the MagEIS and REPT instrument onboard Van Allen Probes. ...
Magnetopause shadowing (MPS) effect could drive a concurrent dropout of radiation belt electrons and ring current protons. However, its relative role in the dropout of both plasma populations has not been well quantified. In this work, we study the simultaneous dropout of MeV electrons and 100s keV protons during an intense geomagnetic storm in May 2017. A radial diffusion model with an event‐specific last closed drift shell is used to simulate the MPS loss of both populations. The model well captures the fast shadowing loss of both populations at L* > 4.6, while the loss at L* < 4.6, possibly due to the electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave scattering, is not captured. The observed butterfly pitch angle distributions of electron fluxes in the initial loss phase are well reproduced by the model. The initial proton losses at low pitch angles are underestimated, potentially also contributed by other mechanisms such as field line curvature scattering.
... The original formulae used converting the count-based data products into rates are presented in Sect. 7.2 of Mitchell et al. (2013). In this section, we describe the updated formulae, based on data acquired in-flight. ...
... They drift azimuthally in the radial gradient of the magnetic field. Their energy gain can also be calculated by the expression q × E × d, where q is the ion charge state, E is the azimuthal electric field in the channel, and d is the azimuthal distance through which they have gradient drifted during their transport (from Mitchell et al. 2013) b) 2-3 keV, c) 20 keV, d) the very highest energies that can be transported from the outer boundary (10 R E ) to the inner boundary (5.8 R E , i.e. Van Allen probes apogee). ...
... The white dots indicate the most likely anisotropy values at each parallel energy. The bin size for the kinetic energy is 4 keV and that for the KP anisotropy is 0.2 (from Noh et al. 2018) Mitchell et al. (2013) manuscript, which described in great detail the instrument itself, and calibrations performed in the lab. The second part of this paper, focuses on the scientific advances enabled by the Van Allen Probes composition data. ...
The Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) on both the Van Allen Probes spacecraft is a time-of-flight versus total energy instrument that provided ion composition data over the ring current energy (∼7 keV to ∼1 MeV), and electrons over the energy range ∼25 keV to ∼1 MeV throughout the duration of the mission (2012 – 2019). In this paper we present instrument calibrations, implemented after the Van Allen Probes mission was launched. In particular, we discuss updated rate dependent corrections, possible contamination by “accidentals” rates, and caveats concerning the use of certain products. We also provide a summary of the major advances in ring current science, obtained from RBSPICE observations, and their implications for the future of inner magnetosphere exploration.
... We choose an upper limit of 200 keV as this is about the maximum energy in this simulation that our inner magnetosphere model (see Section 2.3) covers throughout the entirety of the RBSP-B orbit. This energy range is fully covered using the combination of the Time-of-Flight by Pulse Height (TOFxPH) data product for proton energies between 10 and 50 keV and the Time-of-flight by Energy (TOFxE) data product for 50 keV protons and upwards (Mitchell et al., 2013). The Level-3 omnidirectional flux from both of these data products was used. ...
The formation of the stormtime ring current is a result of the inward transport and energization of plasma sheet ions. Previous studies have demonstrated that a significant fraction of the total inward plasma sheet transport takes place in the form of bursty bulk flows, known theoretically as flux tube entropy‐depleted “bubbles.” However, it remains an open question to what extent bubbles contribute to the buildup of the stormtime ring current. Using the Multiscale Atmosphere Geospace Environment Model, we present a case study of the 17 March 2013 storm, including a quantitative analysis of the contribution of plasma transported by bubbles to the ring current. We show that bubbles are responsible for at least 50% of the plasma energy enhancement within 6 RE during this strong geomagnetic storm. The bubbles that penetrate within 6 RE transport energy primarily in the form of enthalpy flux, followed by Poynting flux and relatively little as bulk kinetic flux. Return flows can transport outwards a significant fraction of the plasma energy being transported by inward flows, and therefore must be considered when quantifying the net contribution of bubbles to the energy buildup. Data‐model comparison with proton intensities observed by the Van Allen Probes show that the model accurately reproduces both the bulk and spectral properties of the stormtime ring current. The evolution of the ring current energy spectra throughout the modeled storm is driven by both inward transport of an evolving plasma sheet population and by charge exchange with Earth's geocorona.
... MagEIS and REPT data were used to observe the energy and spatial distributions of relativistic electrons trapped in the radiation belts. In addition, Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) data were used to observe the pitch angle and energy distributions of ring current protons with energies above 50 keV (Mitchell et al., 2013). Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES), operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), carries instruments that detect energetic ion and electron flux. ...
To understand the mechanism of the increased frequency of intervals of pulsations of diminishing periods (IPDPs), we analyzed IPDP‐type electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves that occurred on 19 April 2017, using ground and satellite observations. Observations by low‐altitude satellites and ground‐based magnetometers indicate that the increased IPDP frequency is caused by an inward (i.e., Earthward) shift of the EMIC wave source region. The EMIC wave source region moves inward along the mid‐latitude trough, which we used as a proxy for the plasmapause location. A statistical analysis shows that increases in the IPDP frequency showed a positive correlation with polar cap potentials. These results suggest an enhanced convection electric field causes an inward shift of the source region. The inward shift of the source region allows EMIC waves to scatter relativistic electrons over a wide range of radial distances during the IPDP event. This mechanism suggests that IPDP‐type EMIC waves are more likely to scatter relativistic electrons than other EMIC waves. We also show that the decreased phase‐space density of relativistic electrons in the outer radiation belt is consistent with the extent of the source region and the resonant energy of EMIC waves, implying a possible contribution of EMIC waves to outer radiation belt loss during the main phase of geomagnetic storms.
... This study mainly investigates proton fluxes measured by the RBSPICE (Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment) instrument (Mitchell et al., 2013) onboard Van Allen Probes. The RBSPICE instruments measure the fluxes for different types of ions in the inner magnetosphere over a wide range of energies. ...
The Earth's ring current is highly dynamic and is strongly influenced by the solar wind. The ring current alters the planet's magnetic field, defining geomagnetic storms. In this study, we investigate the decay timescales of ring current protons using observations from the Van Allen Probes. Since proton fluxes typically exhibit exponential decay after big storms, the decay time scales are calculated by performing linear regression on the logarithm of the fluxes. We found that in the central region of the ring current, proton decay timescales generally increase with increasing energies and increasing L-shells. The ~10s keV proton decay timescales are about a few days, while the ~100 keV proton decay time scale is about ~10 days, and protons of 269 keV have decay timescales up to ~118 days. These findings provide valuable insights into the ring current dynamics and can contribute to the development of more accurate ring current models.
... To obtain the relationship between EMIC wave properties and proton distributions, unidirectional differential proton flux data from Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) Mass Spectrometer (Funsten et al., 2013) and Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) (Mitchell et al., 2013) were used to calculate proton perpendicular temperature T ⊥,p , proton parallel temperature T ∥,p and proton beta parallel β ∥,p (e.g., Yue et al., 2016Yue et al., , 2018Yue et al., , 2019. These parameters are calculated as ...
Large‐amplitude (Bw > 1 nT) electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves can cause the rapid loss of >1 MeV electrons, greatly impacting radiation belt dynamics. With long‐term Van Allen Probe B observations from 2013 to 2018, we conducted a statistical survey to reveal the amplitude‐dependent EMIC wave properties and excitation mechanisms in the Earth's inner magnetosphere. Statistical results show that large‐amplitude EMIC waves prefer to occur in the afternoon‐dusk sector in the northern hemisphere and tend to be more left‐hand polarized with smaller wave normal angles. In addition, the high proton beta parallel conditions also favor the generation of larger‐amplitude EMIC waves. From the variations of EMIC wave occurrence rate as a function of SuperMAG electrojet (SME) index and solar wind dynamic pressure, we find that the small‐amplitude EMIC waves are generally triggered by high solar wind dynamic pressure, while large‐amplitude EMIC wave generation is both affected by substorm activity and solar wind dynamic pressure. The normalized magnetic field perturbations during EMIC wave appearance, which enable us to distinguish the relative roles of magnetospheric compression and substorm injection in the excitation of different‐amplitude EMIC waves, provide further evidence that as wave amplitude increases, substorm injection plays a more important role in EMIC wave excitation, and magnetospheric compression is also an indispensable trigger.
