Statistical Characteristics of the Proton Isotropy Boundary

TL;DR

This study analyzes proton isotropy boundary events in the nightside magnetosphere using ELFIN satellite data, revealing their occurrence patterns, energy ranges, and the role of magnetic field-line curvature scattering in proton isotropization.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive statistical characterization of proton isotropy boundaries, linking their properties to geomagnetic activity and magnetic field-line curvature effects.

Findings

Proton IBs occur across all activity levels, with high occurrence between 19-03 MLT.

Proton IBs are typically at 64-66° magnetic latitude, near the ring current edge.

FLC scattering significantly contributes to energetic proton depletion and precipitation.

Abstract

Using particle data from the ELFIN satellites, we present a statistical study of 284 proton isotropy boundary events on the nightside magnetosphere, characterizing their occurrence and distribution in local time, latitude (L-shell), energy, and precipitating energy flux, as a function of geomagnetic activity. For a given charged particle species and energy, its isotropy boundary (IB) is the magnetic latitude poleward of which persistently isotropic pitch-angle distributions ($J_{prec}/J_{perp}\sim 1$) are first observed to occur. This isotropization is interpreted as resulting from magnetic field-line curvature (FLC) scattering in the equatorial magnetosphere. We find that proton IBs are observed under all observed activity levels, spanning 16 to 05 MLT with $\sim$100% occurrence between 19 and 03 MLT, trending toward 60% at dawn/dusk. These results are also compared with electron IB properties observed using ELFIN, where we find similar trends across local time and activity, with the onset in $\geq$50 keV proton IB occurring on average 2 L-shells lower, and providing between 3 and 10 times as much precipitating power. Proton IBs typically span $64^\circ$-$66^\circ$ in magnetic latitude (5-6 in L-shell), corresponding to the outer edge of the ring current, tending toward lower IGRF latitudes as geomagnetic activity increases. The IBs were found to commonly occur 0.3-2.1 Re beyond the plasmapause. Proton IBs typically span $<$50 keV to $\sim$1 MeV in energy, maximizing near 22 MLT, and decreasing to a typical upper limit of 300-400 keV toward dawn and dusk, with peak observed isotropic energy increasing by $\sim$500 keV during active intervals. These results suggest that FLC in the vicinity of IBs can provide a substantial depletion mechanism for energetic protons, with the total nightside precipitating power from FLC-scattering found to be on the order of 100 MW, at times $\geq$10 GW.