Omnidirectional Energetic Electron Fluxes from 150 km to 20,000 km: an ELFIN-Based Model

TL;DR

This paper presents an ELFIN-based analytical model that estimates omnidirectional energetic electron fluxes from 150 km to 20,000 km altitude, improving understanding of flux variations and radiation hazards in Earth's magnetosphere.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to infer and model electron fluxes across a wide altitude range using single low Earth orbit measurements and adiabatic transport theory.

Findings

Model accurately fits electron fluxes as functions of multiple parameters.

Both impulsive and cumulative substorm activities influence electron fluxes.

Validated model shows broad applicability to different magnetospheric regions.

Abstract

The strong variations of energetic electron fluxes in the Earth's inner magnetosphere are notoriously hard to forecast. Developing accurate empirical models of electron fluxes from low to high altitudes at all latitudes is therefore useful to improve our understanding of flux variations and to assess radiation hazards for spacecraft systems. In the present work, energy- and pitch-angle-resolved precipitating, trapped, and backscattered electron fluxes measured at low altitude by Electron Loss and Fields Investigation (ELFIN) CubeSats are used to infer omnidirectional fluxes at altitudes below and above the spacecraft, from 150 km to 20,000 km, making use of adiabatic transport theory and quasi-linear diffusion theory. The inferred fluxes are fitted as a function of selected parameters using a stepwise multivariate optimization procedure, providing an analytical model of omnidirectional electron flux along each geomagnetic field line, based on measurements from only one spacecraft in low Earth orbit. The modeled electron fluxes are provided as a function of $L$-shell, altitude, energy, and two different indices of past substorm activity, computed over the preceding 4 hours or 3 days, potentially allowing to disentangle impulsive processes (such as rapid injections) from cumulative processes (such as inward radial diffusion and wave-driven energization). The model is validated through comparisons with equatorial measurements from the Van Allen Probes, demonstrating the broad applicability of the present method. The model indicates that both impulsive and time-integrated substorm activity partly control electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt and in the plasma sheet.