HR: 1340h
AN: SM53B-1279    [Abstracts]
TI: Observation of Field-Aligned Particle Energization Using GOES-11
AU: * Gannon, J L
EM: Jennifer.Gannon@noaa.gov
AF: CIRES/NOAA-Space Environment Center, 325 Broadway W/NP-9, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Onsager, T
EM: Terry.Onsager@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA-Space Environment Center, 325 Broadway W/NP-9, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AB: The evolution of high energy electron pitch angle distributions (PADs) can provide clues to help us distinguish the physical processes at work in the Earth's radiation belts. The shape of a PAD is affected by the geometric structure of the magnetic field environment and by the particle distributions. Changes in the form of magnetic field reconfiguration or the particle populations can result in specific changes in PAD. Using GOES-11 particle and magnetic field data, while the satellite was spinning in storage mode in geosynchronous orbit, we obtain pitch angle resolved electron measurements (>600 keV and >2MeV) and observe the evolution of the constructed PADs. In this study, we observe an unusual event occurring March 22 - 28, 2002, which suggests an acceleration mechanism which favors field-aligned electrons, resulting in clearly observed butterfly-type (minimum around 90 degrees) distributions at all local times over a 2 day period.
DE: 2720 Energetic particles: trapped
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere: inner
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2774 Radiation belts
DE: 2788 Magnetic storms and substorms (7954)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting