Magnetic local time‐resolved examination of radiation belt dynamics during high speed solar wind speed triggered substorm clusters

Particle observations from low Earth orbiting satellites are used to undertake superposed epoch analysis around clusters of substorms, in order to investigate radiation belt dynamical responses to mild geomagnetic disturbances. Medium energy electrons and protons have drift periods long enough to discriminate between processes occurring at different MLT, such as magnetopause shadowing, plasma wave activity, and substorm injections. Analysis shows that magnetopause shadowing produces clear loss in proton and electron populations over a wide range of L‐shells, initially on the dayside, which interact with nightside substorm‐generated flux enhancements following charge‐dependent drift directions. Inner magnetospheric injections recently identified as an important source of 10's to 100's keV electrons at low L (L<3), occurring during similar solar wind‐driving conditions as recurrent substorms, show similar but more enhanced geomagnetic AU‐index signatures. Two‐fold increases in substorm occurrence at the time of the sudden particle enhancements at low L shells (SPELLS), suggests a common linkage.

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