HR: 09:00h
AN: SM41D-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Response of Inner Zone to Recent Strong Geomagnetic Events: SAMPEX Observations
AU: * Looper, M D
EM: mark.d.looper@aero.org
AF: The Aerospace Corporation, Mail Station M2/260 P.O. Box 92957, Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 United States
AU: Blake, J B
EM: jbernard.blake@aero.org
AF: The Aerospace Corporation, Mail Station M2/260 P.O. Box 92957, Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 United States
AU: Mazur, J E
EM: joseph.e.mazur@aero.org
AF: The Aerospace Corporation, Mail Station M2/260 P.O. Box 92957, Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 United States
AU: Mewaldt, R A
EM: rmewaldt@srl.caltech.edu
AF: California Institute of Technology, 220-47 Downs Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AB: From late 2003 to the present, as solar activity cycle declines towards its minimum phase, there have been several large (Dst of 100 to 500 nT) geomagnetic storms, often associated with solar energetic particle activity. The Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) satellite has observed the energetic particle populations in low Earth orbit since 1992; the low-altitude inner zone, in particular, has responded to some of these recent geomagnetic events in ways unprecedented in the entire previous mission record. Protons above 20 MeV at 600 km have been almost entirely "scrubbed" away during some of these events because of expansion of the upper atmosphere, returning only over a period of months. Electrons above 2 MeV have been injected into the slot at intensities greater than observed previously, and the resulting belts have persisted longer. Ultrarelativistic electrons above 10 MeV have been injected inside of L = 3.5 at intensities not seen since the beginning of the mission, when the belt injected by the March 1991 storm was still strong. Responses of the inner zone to several recent geomagnetic events (notably those in October/November 2003, July and November 2004, and January and May 2005) will be shown, with discussion of how the characteristics of each event may cause the varying responses observed by SAMPEX.
DE: 2720 Energetic particles: trapped
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere: inner
DE: 2774 Radiation belts
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005