HR: 11:45h
AN: SA12A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Assessing the Sensitivity of Radiation Belt Model Predictions to Different Magnetic Field Models
AU: * Huang, C
EM: hcl@bu.edu
AF: Center for Space Physics, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
AU: Spence, H
EM: spence@bu.edu
AF: Center for Space Physics, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
AU: Elkington, S
EM: scot.elkington@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303
AU: Lyon, J
EM: lyon@tinman.dartmouth.edu
AF: Center for Space Physics, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
AB: Accurate knowledge of the time-dependent magnetic field in the inner magnetosphere is an important factor needed to simulate correctly the radiation belt environment. The dramatic change of magnetic field configuration in the inner magnetosphere, especially during magnetic storm time, could significantly alter radiation belt model predictions. Reproducing storm time magnetic field in the inner magnetosphere remains a challenge for both empirical and physics-based models. In this study, we use various field models to quantify the sensitivity of particle motions in a global field configuration for a given radiation belt model. The radiation belt model in this work is a two-dimensional test particle simulation which uses guiding center particle approximation to understand the motions of relativistic electrons [Elkington et al., 2004]. We use three different sources of magnetic field for the radiation belt model: (1) a simple dipole field, as well as magnetic field outputs from (2) the Tsyganenko storm model [Tsyganenko et al., 2003] and (3) the LFM MHD simulation [Lyon et al., 2004]. We explore the storm time evolution of radiation belt particle behavior by comparing results using different magnetic field configurations. Quantifying model sensitivity to the magnetic field will provide a general resource for radiation belt studies and will ultimately help in developing better inner magnetosphere models.
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere: inner
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 2774 Radiation belts
DE: 2788 Magnetic storms and substorms (7954)
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005