Dynamics of Earth's radiation belt on the basis of MHD-particle coupled simulation

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24340119
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Space and upper atmospheric physics
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: EBIHARA Yusuke 京都大学, 生存圏研究所, 准教授 (80342616)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YOSHIKAWA Akimasa 九州大学, 国際宇宙天気科学・教育センター, 講師 (70284479) ; FUKAZAWA Kei-ichiro 京都大学, 大学院情報学研究科, 准教授 (50377868)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OMURA Yoshiharu 京都大学, 生存圏研究所, 教授 (50177002)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 磁気圏 / 磁気嵐 / サブストーム / シミュレーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The radiation belt consists of the energetic charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field. External transport and internal acceleration have been thought to rebuild the radiation belt. For external transport, magnetospheric electric field is important to transport energetic particles into the radiation belt. Using simulation, we successfully reproduced strong westward electric field that appears with oscillation, which transports energetic particles inward and results in temporal reduction during substorms. For internal acceleration, transport of keV electrons and wave-particle interaction are important to generate relativistic electrons. We successfully reproduced the reversal of the convection electric field that is responsible to the transport of keV electrons after substorm. The wave-particle interaction is found to take place efficiently to accelerate keV electrons to MeV range a few hours after the beginning of a magnetic storm.

Free Research Field

磁気圏物理学