Simulation studies of the Earth's radiation belts and ring current are very useful in understanding the acceleration, transport, and loss of energetic particles. Recently, the Comprehensive Ring Current Model (CRCM) and the Radiation Belt Environment (RBE) model were merged to form a Comprehensive Inner Magnetosphere-Ionosphere (CIMI) model. CIMI solves for many essential quantities in the inner magnetosphere, including ion and electron distributions in the ring current and radiation belts, plasmaspheric density, Region 2 currents, convection potential, and precipitation in the ionosphere. It incorporates whistler mode chorus and hiss wave diffusion of energetic electrons in energy, pitch angle, and cross terms. CIMI thus represents a comprehensive model that considers the effects of the ring current and plasmasphere on the radiation belts. We have performed a CIMI simulation for the storm on 5-9 April 2010 and then compared our results with data from the Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers and Akebono satellites. We identify the dominant energization and loss processes for the ring current and radiation belts. We find that the interactions with the whistler mode chorus waves are the main cause of the flux increase of MeV electrons during the recovery phase of this particular storm. When a self-consistent electric field from the CRCM is used, the enhancement of MeV electrons is higher than when an empirical convection model is applied. We also demonstrate how CIMI can be a powerful tool for analyzing and interpreting data from the new Van Allen Probes mission.

2014), Investigation of storm time magnetotail and ion injection using three-dimensional global hybrid simulation, Abstract Dynamics of the near-Earth magnetotail associated with substorms during a period of extended southward interplanetary magnetic field is studied using a three-dimensional (3-D) global hybrid simulation model that includes both the dayside and nightside magnetosphere, for the first time, with physics from the ion kinetic to the global Alfvénic convection scales. It is found that the dayside reconnection leads to the penetration of the dawn-dusk electric field through the magnetopause and thus a thinning of the plasma sheet, followed by the magnetotail reconnection with 3-D, multiple flux ropes. Ion kinetic physics is found to play important roles in the magnetotail dynamics, which leads to the following results: (1) Hall electric fields in the thin current layer cause a systematic dawnward ion drift motion and thus a dawn-dusk asymmetry of the plasma sheet with a higher (lower) density on the dawnside (duskside). Correspondingly, more reconnection occurs on the duskside. Bidirectional fast ions are generated due to acceleration in reconnection, and more high-speed earthward flow injections are found on the duskside than the dawnside. Such finding of the dawn-dusk asymmetry is consistent with recent satellite observations. (2) The injected ions undergo the magnetic gradient and curvature drift in the dipole-like field, forming a ring current. (3) Ion particle distributions reveal multiple populations/beams at various distances in the tail. (4) Dipolarization of the tail magnetic field takes place due to the pileup of the injected magnetic fluxes and thermal pressure of injected ions, where the fast earthward flow is stopped. Oscillation of the dipolarization front is developed at the fast-flow braking, predominantly on the dawnside. (5) Kinetic compressional wave turbulence is present around the dipolarization front. The cross-tail currents break into small-scale structures with k ⟂ i ∼ 1, where k ⟂ is the perpendicular wave number. A sharp dip of magnetic field strength is seen just in front of the sharp rise of the magnetic field at the dipolarization front, mainly on the duskside. (6) A shear flow-type instability is found on the duskside flank of the ring current plasma, whereas a kinetic ballooning instability appears on the dawnside. (7) Shear Alfvén waves and compressional waves are generated from the tail reconnection, and they evolve into kinetic Alfvén waves in the dipole-like field region. Correspondingly, multiple field-aligned current filaments are generated above the auroral ionosphere.Geomagnetic substorms are one of the most important global-scale dynamic processes in the magnetosphere. Through the substorm, solar wind energy transmitted from the dayside magnetopause can be released from the magnetotail and injected into the high-latitude ionosphere. Since storms/substorms are conducive to strong particle injections from the tail plasma sheet and variations in the electromagneti...

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The IMAGE spacecraft uses photon and neutral atom imaging and radio sounding techniques to provide global images of Earth's inner magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. Auroral imaging at ultraviolet wavelengths shows that the proton aurora is displaced equatorward with respect to the electron aurora and that discrete auroral forms at higher latitudes are caused almost completely by electrons. Energetic neutral atom imaging of ions injected into the inner magnetosphere during magnetospheric disturbances shows a strong energy-dependent drift that leads to the formation of the ring current by ions in the several tens of kiloelectron volts energy range. Ultraviolet imaging of the plasmasphere has revealed two unexpected features-a premidnight trough region and a dayside shoulder region-and has confirmed the 30-year-old theory of the formation of a plasma tail extending from the duskside plasmasphere toward the magnetopause.

[1] The moderate storm of 22 July 2009 is the largest measured during the extended solar minimum between December 2006 and March 2010. We present observations of this storm made by the two wide-angle imaging neutral-atom spectrometers (TWINS) mission. The TWINS mission measures energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) using sensors mounted on two separate spacecrafts. Because the two spacecrafts' orbital planes are significantly offset, the pair provides a nearly optimal combination of continuous magnetospheric observations from at least one of the TWINS platforms with several hours of simultaneous, dual-platform viewing over each orbit. The ENA imaging study presented in this paper is the first reported magnetospheric storm for which both continuous coverage and stereoscopic imaging were available. Two populations of ENAs are observed during this storm. The first are emissions from the ring current and come from a parent population of trapped ions in the inner magnetosphere. The second, low-altitude emissions (LAEs), are the result of precipitating ions which undergo multiple charge exchange and stripping collisions with the oxygen exosphere. The temporal evolution of this storm shows that the LAEs begin earlier and are the brightest emissions seen during the main phase, while later, during the recovery, the LAE is only as bright as the bulk ring current emissions.

[1] Global images of ion intensities are deconvolved from TWINS ENA images during the main and recovery phase of a CIR storm on 22 July 2009. The global spatial ion images taken at different times, along with solar wind data, geomagnetic activity indices, geosynchronous orbit observations, and in situ measurements from the THEMIS mission provide a picture of the evolution of the ring current during both the main phase and early recovery phase of the storm. Major features of the evolution are consistent with expectations based upon time dependent geomagnetic indices, e.g., SYM/H and ASY/H, and geosynchronous orbit detection of dipolarizations from GOES 11 and 12. Direct comparisons are made with in situ THEMIS ESA and SST spectral measurements. The peak energy of the ion spectrum in the ring current is seen to decrease in the recovery phase. The time evolution of the ion energy spectra over the range from 2.5 to 97.5 keV at the spatial peaks of the ring current in the inner magnetosphere obtained from ENA images is presented for the first time.

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Data from two near‐conjugate passes of DE 1 and DE 2 through the cusp/cleft region of the Earth's magnetosphere are presented and compared with model calculations of particle transport from the solar wind to spacecraft locations in the magnetosphere. Comparison of the observed and calculated particle spectra shows that the model can successfully match the spectra at both spacecraft using the same model parameters. This demonstrates that the modeling technique is applicable at both high and low altitudes. We are also able to conclude that the particles originate from a fairly narrow spatial region on the magnetopause even though magnetosheath plasma has access to the magnetosphere over the entire magnetopause in the model. The success of the model in reproducing key features of the observed spectra and the fact that the two satellites in near magnetic conjunction but at different altitudes observed similar, distinctive features at times separated by 10–20 min demonstrates that there are quasi‐stationary, spatial features in the cusp/cleft region of the Earth's magnetosphere.