Acceleration mechanisms of radiation belt electrons during magnetic storms driven by CMEs and CIRs

Ryuho Kataoka and Yoshizumi Miyoshi

STE, Nagoya University

Radiation belts show various patterns of evolution during a few days after a magnetic storm onset, and the prediction has been a difficult problem.

Using a 10 year data set of the sun, solar wind, radiation belts, and geomagnetic field, we show that the outer radiation belt tends to be more dangerous for geosynchronous satellites than usual during storms associated with coronal holes and corotating interaction regions, and that the outer radiation belt tends to be rather safe during storms associated with coronal mass ejections.

In this paper, we report our new results of the radiation belts as a nice example of Sun-Earth connection, and review possible acceleration mechanisms of the radiation belts to see the Earth's dipole field as a cosmic electron accelerator to generate relativistic particles.