Favored regions for chorus-driven electron acceleration to relativistic energies in the Earth’s outer radiation belt

[1] Pitch angle and energy diffusion rates for scattering by whistler-mode chorus waves are proportional to the wave magnetic field intensity and are strongly dependent on the frequency distribution of the waves and to the ratio between the electron plasma frequency (f(pe)) and the electron gyrofrequency (f(ce)). Relativistic electrons interact most readily with lower-band chorus (0.1 < f/f(ce) 300 nT). Enhanced waves in these regions could play a major role in electron acceleration to relativistic energies during periods of prolonged substorm activity.

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