Observations of Electron Fluxes in the Radiation Belts with PROBA-V/EPT at Polar Low Earth Orbit and Van Allen Probes/MagEIS at Near Equatorial Elliptical Orbit

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Discipline
Physical sciences
Subject
Ionizing radiation
Shape
Satellite broadcasting
NASA
Low earth orbit satellites
Space radiation
Telescopes
Audience
Scientific
Date
2022Metadata
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The electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt during and after geomagnetic storms were investigated using the EPT (Energetic Particle Telescope) instrument on board the ESA PROBA-V satellite at a polar LEO (Low Earth Orbit) at 820 km of altitude and compared with simultaneous observations of the instrument MagEIS on board the NASA Van Allen Probes circulating on a low inclination elliptical orbit ranging from 600 to 30 600 km.We find that the equatorial trapped electron fluxes observed at MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) are higher than at LEO. Below 1 MeV, maximal fluxes differ by ~2 orders of magnitude. However, the EPT ultra-relativistic flux (>2.4 MeV) is much lower than the Van Allen Probes flux at 2.33 MeV, by 4 to 5 orders of magnitude. We also observe that the outer belt is quite isotropic during quiet times, contrary to the inner belt. During storms (here, the big storm of 23 June 2015), the dropout and flux increase observed at LEO and MEO present very similar shapes.
Citation
Pierrard, V.; Botek, E.; Ripoll, J.-F.; Reeves, G.; Thaller, S.A. (2022). Observations of Electron Fluxes in the Radiation Belts with PROBA-V/EPT at Polar Low Earth Orbit and Van Allen Probes/MagEIS at Near Equatorial Elliptical Orbit. , 2022 3rd URSI Atlantic and Asia Pacific Radio Science Meeting (AT-AP-RASC), 29 May - 4 June 2022, Gran Canaria, Spain, DOI: 10.23919/AT-AP-RASC54737.2022.9814192.Identifiers
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Type
Conference
Peer-Review
No
Language
eng