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A Comparison of Radial Diffusion Coefficients in 1-D and 3-D Long-Term Radiation Belt Simulations

Drozdov A. Y., H. J. Allison, Y. Y. Shprits, S. R. Elkington, N. A. Aseev, (2021), A Comparison of Radial Diffusion Coefficients in 1-D and 3-D Long-Term Radiation Belt Simulations, J. Geophys. Res. [Space Physics], 126, e2020JA028707, doi:10.1029/2020JA028707, e2020JA028707 2020JA028707

Abstract

Abstract Radial diffusion is one of the dominant physical mechanisms driving acceleration and loss of radiation belt electrons. A number of parameterizations for radial diffusion coefficients have been developed, each differing in the data set used. Here, we investigate the performance of different parameterizations by Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344, Brautigam et al. (2005), https://doi.org/10.1029/2004ja010612, Ozeke et al. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204, Ali et al. (2015), https://doi.org/10.1002/2014ja020419; Ali et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2016ja023002; Ali (2016), and Liu et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398 on long-term radiation belt modeling using the Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB) code, and compare the results to Van Allen Probes observations. First, 1-D radial diffusion simulations are performed, isolating the contribution of solely radial diffusion. We then take into account effects of local acceleration and loss showing additional 3-D simulations, including diffusion across pitch-angle, energy, and mixed diffusion. For the L* range studied, the difference between simulations with Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344, Ozeke et al. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204, and Liu et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398 parameterizations is shown to be small, with Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344 offering the smallest averaged (across multiple energies) absolute normalized difference with observations. Using the Ali et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2016ja023002 parameterization tended to result in a lower flux than both the observations and the VERB simulations using the other coefficients. We find that the 3-D simulations are less sensitive to the radial diffusion coefficient chosen than the 1-D simulations, suggesting that for 3-D radiation belt models, a similar result is likely to be achieved, regardless of whether Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344, Ozeke et al. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204, and Liu et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398 parameterizations are used.

Authors (sorted by name)

Allison Aseev Drozdov Elkington Shprits

Journal / Conference

Journal Of Geophysical Research (Space Physics)

Grants

80NSSC18K0663

Bibtex

@article{https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028707,
author = {Drozdov, A. Y. and Allison, H. J. and Shprits, Y. Y. and Elkington, S. R. and Aseev, N. A.},
title = {A Comparison of Radial Diffusion Coefficients in 1-D and 3-D Long-Term Radiation Belt Simulations},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics},
volume = {126},
number = {8},
pages = {e2020JA028707},
keywords = {radiation belts, radial diffusion, VERB code},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028707},
url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JA028707},
eprint = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2020JA028707},
note = {e2020JA028707 2020JA028707},
abstract = {Abstract Radial diffusion is one of the dominant physical mechanisms driving acceleration and loss of radiation belt electrons. A number of parameterizations for radial diffusion coefficients have been developed, each differing in the data set used. Here, we investigate the performance of different parameterizations by Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344, Brautigam et al. (2005), https://doi.org/10.1029/2004ja010612, Ozeke et al. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204, Ali et al. (2015), https://doi.org/10.1002/2014ja020419; Ali et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2016ja023002; Ali (2016), and Liu et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398 on long-term radiation belt modeling using the Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB) code, and compare the results to Van Allen Probes observations. First, 1-D radial diffusion simulations are performed, isolating the contribution of solely radial diffusion. We then take into account effects of local acceleration and loss showing additional 3-D simulations, including diffusion across pitch-angle, energy, and mixed diffusion. For the L* range studied, the difference between simulations with Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344, Ozeke et al. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204, and Liu et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398 parameterizations is shown to be small, with Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344 offering the smallest averaged (across multiple energies) absolute normalized difference with observations. Using the Ali et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2016ja023002 parameterization tended to result in a lower flux than both the observations and the VERB simulations using the other coefficients. We find that the 3-D simulations are less sensitive to the radial diffusion coefficient chosen than the 1-D simulations, suggesting that for 3-D radiation belt models, a similar result is likely to be achieved, regardless of whether Brautigam and Albert (2000), https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344, Ozeke et al. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204, and Liu et al. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398 parameterizations are used.},
year = {2021}
}