资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Accurately modeling the evolution of the electron radiation belts within the plasmasphere represents both an imperative goal for space weather forecasting and a great challenge. Combining previously developed approximate analytical expressions of electron lifetimes with recent statistical models of plasma density, ULF, whistler-mode, and electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves, we demonstrate that geomagnetic activity and plasma density actually govern the inner structure of the radiation belts through several simple analytical scaling laws when Kp < 3. Many of the observed characteristic features of electron fluxes in the energy versus L shell parameter space are straightforwardly explained. In particular, the upper energy limit of significant electron fluxes at L = 1.5 is estimated as approximate to 1MeV in agreement with recent satellite observations. This approximate analytical model represents a very simple and powerful tool for exploring and better understanding the complex variations of the inner structure of the radiation belts with geomagnetic activity during relatively quiet times.