The origin of Jupiter's outer radiation belt

The intense inner radiation belt at Jupiter (>50 MeV at 1.5 RJ) is generally accepted to be created by radial diffusion of electrons from further away from the planet. However, this requires a source with energies that exceed 1 MeV outside the orbit of the moon Io at 5.9 RJ, which has never been explained satisfactorily. Here we test the hypothesis that this source population could be formed from a very soft energy spectrum, by particle injection processes and resonant electron acceleration via whistler mode chorus waves. We use the British Antarctic Survey Radiation Belt Model to calculate the change in the electron flux between 6.5 and 15 RJ; these are the first simulations at Jupiter combining wave particle interactions and radial diffusion. The resulting electron flux at 100 keV and 1 MeV lies very close to the Galileo Interim Radiation Electron model spectrum after 1 and 10 days, respectively. The primary driver for the increase in the flux is cyclotron resonant acceleration by chorus waves. A peak in phase space density forms such that inside L≈9 radial diffusion transports electrons toward Jupiter, but outside L≈9 radial diffusion acts away from the planet. The results are insensitive to the softness of the initial energy spectrum but do depend on the value of the flux at the minimum energy boundary. We conclude by suggesting that the source population for the inner radiation belt at Jupiter could indeed be formed by wave-particle interactions

Electron losses from the radiation belts caused by EMIC waves

Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) waves cause electron loss in the radiation belts by resonating with high energy electrons at energies greater than about 500 keV. However, their effectiveness has not been fully quantified. Here we determine the effectiveness of EMIC waves by using wave data from the fluxgate magnetometer on CRRES to calculate bounce averaged pitch angle and energy diffusion rates for L* =3.5 - 7 for five levels of Kp between 12 - 18 MLT. To determine the electron loss EMIC diffusion rates were included in the BAS Radiation Belt Model together with whistler mode chorus, plasmaspheric hiss and radial diffusion. By simulating a 100 day period in 1990 we show that EMIC waves caused a significant reduction in the electron flux for energies greater than 2 MeV but only for pitch angles lower than about 60°.The simulations show that the distribution of electrons left behind in space looks like a pancake distribution. Since EMIC waves cannot remove electrons at all pitch angles even at 30 MeV, our results suggest that EMIC waves are unlikely to set an upper limit on the energy of the flux of radiation belt electrons

Development of Free Vortex Wake Method for Yaw Misalignment Effect on the Thrust Vector and Generated Power

Wind power is currently one of the most reliable new energy sources serving as an alternative to fossil fuel generated electricity and is known as a widely distributed clean and renewable source of energy. It is now the world's fastest growing energy source and has also become one of the most rapidly expanding industries. The aerodynamics of a wind turbine is governed by the flow around the rotor, where the prediction of air loads on rotor blades in different operational conditions and their relation to rotor structural dynamics is crucial for design purposes. One of the challenges in wind turbine aerodynamics is the yaw condition where the undisturbed upstream flow is not perpendicular to the rotor plane, giving a non-uniform blade load which is contrary to the axisymmetric flow assumption in the BEM (Blade Element Momentum) method. However, there are some engineering methods modifying the BEMmethod for yaw misalignment situations,1 where they often calculate the skewed axial induction factor as an average value over the rotor disk which is insensitive to the blade rotation direction. On the other hand, experiments show that the thrust vector for a positive yaw misalignment differs from that for a negative yaw misalignment. A free vortex wake method, based on the potential, inviscid and irrotational flow, is developed to study the deviation of thrust vector relative to rotor shaft. The results are compared with the BEM method2 and experimental data. A two-bladed variable speed wind turbine, the Hönö wind turbine,3 is used for this study

Electron acceleration at Jupiter: input from cyclotron-resonant interaction with whistler-mode chorus waves

Jupiter has the most intense radiation belts of all the outer planets. It is not yet known how electrons can be accelerated to energies of 10 MeV or more. It has been suggested that cyclotron-resonant wave-particle interactions by chorus waves could accelerate electrons to a few MeV near the orbit of Io. Here we use the chorus wave intensities observed by the Galileo spacecraft to calculate the changes in electron flux as a result of pitch angle and energy diffusion. We show that, when the bandwidth of the waves and its variation with L are taken into account, pitch angle and energy diffusion due to chorus waves is a factor of 8 larger at L-shells greater than 10 than previously shown. We have used the latitudinal wave intensity profile from Galileo data to model the time evolution of the electron flux using the British Antarctic Survey Radiation Belt (BAS) model. This profile confines intense chorus waves near the magnetic equator with a peak intensity at ∼5° latitude. Electron fluxes in the BAS model increase by an order of magnitude for energies around 3 MeV. Extending our results to L = 14 shows that cyclotron-resonant interactions with chorus waves are equally important for electron acceleration beyond L = 10. These results suggest that there is significant electron acceleration by cyclotron-resonant interactions at Jupiter contributing to the creation of Jupiter's radiation belts and also increasing the range of L-shells over which this mechanism should be considered

Quantifying hiss-driven energetic electron precipitation: A detailed conjunction event analysis

Abstract We analyze a conjunction event between the Van Allen Probes and the low-altitude Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) to quantify hiss-driven energetic electron precipitation. A physics-based technique based on quasi-linear diffusion theory is used to estimate the ratio of precipitated and trapped electron fluxes (R), which could be measured by the two-directional POES particle detectors, using wave and plasma parameters observed by the Van Allen Probes. The remarkable agreement between modeling and observations suggests that this technique is applicable for quantifying hiss-driven electron scattering near the bounce loss cone. More importantly, R in the 100-300 keV energy channel measured by multiple POES satellites over a broad L magnetic local time region can potentially provide the spatiotemporal evolution of global hiss wave intensity, which is essential in evaluating radiation belt electron dynamics, but cannot be obtained by in situ equatorial satellites alone. Key Points Measured and calculated hiss Bw from POES electron measurements agree well Electron ratio measured by POES is able to estimate hiss wave intensity This technique can be used to provide global hiss wave distributio

Plasmatrough exohiss waves observed by Van Allen Probes: Evidence for leakage from plasmasphere and resonant scattering of radiation belt electrons

Abstract Exohiss waves are whistler mode hiss observed in the plasmatrough region. We present a case study of exohiss waves and the corresponding background plasma distributions observed by the Van Allen Probes in the dayside low-latitude region. The analysis of wave Poynting fluxes, suprathermal electron fluxes, and cold electron densities supports the scenario that exohiss leaks from the plasmasphere into the plasmatrough. Quasilinear calculations further reveal that exohiss can potentially cause the resonant scattering loss of radiation belt electrons

Particle-in-cell experiments examine electron diffusion by whistler-mode waves: 2. Quasilinear and nonlinear dynamics

Test-particle codes indicate that electron dynamics due to interactions with low amplitude incoherent whistler mode-waves can be adequately described by quasilinear theory. However there is significant evidence indicating that higher amplitude waves cause electron dynamics not adequately described using quasilinear theory. Using the method that was introduced in Allanson et al. (2019, https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019JA027088), we track the dynamical response of electrons due to interactions with incoherent whistler-mode waves, across all energy and pitch angle space. We conduct 5 experiments each with different values of the electromagnetic wave amplitude. We find that the electron dynamics agree well with the quasilinear theory diffusion coefficients for low amplitude incoherent waves with $(B_{\text{w,rms}}/B_0)^2\approx 3.7\cdot 10^{-10}$, over a timescale $T$ of the order of 1000 gyroperiods. However the resonant interactions with higher amplitude waves cause significant non-diffusive dynamics as well as diffusive dynamics. When electron dynamics are extracted and analyzed over timescales shorter than $T$, we are able to isolate both the diffusive and non-diffusive (advective) dynamics. Interestingly, when considered over these appropriately shorter timescales (of the order of hundreds or tens of gyroperiods), the diffusive component of the dynamics agrees well with the predictions of quasilinear theory, even for wave amplitudes up to $(B_{\text{w,rms}}/B_0)^2\approx 5.8\cdot 10^{-6}$. Quasilinear theory is based on fundamentally diffusive dynamics, but the evidence presented herein also indicates the existence of a distinct advective component. Therefore, the proper description of electron dynamics in response to wave-particle interactions with higher amplitude whistler-mode waves may require Fokker-Planck equations that incorporate diffusive and advective terms

The implications of temporal variability in wave‐particle interactions in Earth's radiation belts

Changes in electron flux in Earth's outer radiation belt can be modeled using a diffusion‐based framework. Diffusion coefficients D for such models are often constructed from statistical averages of observed inputs. Here, we use stochastic parameterization to investigate the consequences of temporal variability in D. Variability time scales are constrained using Van Allen Probe observations. Results from stochastic parameterization experiments are compared with experiments using D constructed from averaged inputs and an average of observation‐specific D. We find that the evolution and final state of the numerical experiment depends upon the variability time scale of D; experiments with longer variability time scales differ from those with shorter time scales, even when the time‐integrated diffusion is the same. Short variability time scale experiments converge with solutions obtained using an averaged observation‐specific D, and both exhibit greater diffusion than experiments using the averaged‐input D. These experiments reveal the importance of temporal variability in radiation belt diffusion