Comparisons of Inner Radiation Belt Formation in Planetary Magnetospheres Richard B Horne British Antarctic Survey Cambridge Invited talk. AGU Chapman Conference on Universal Heliophysical Processes, Savannah, USA, 13th November 2008

Outline The problem of electron acceleration Earth’s radiation belts –Acceleration by radial diffusion –Cyclotron resonant acceleration Application to Jupiter –Scaling –Rapid rotation Application to Saturn Is wave acceleration a new universal process?

Radiation Belts - The Problem Basic science How do you produce >1 MeV electrons? Space weather Hazard to humans and satellites Climate link Precipitation transmits solar variability to the atmosphere Precipitation - chemistry – temperatures - winds

Why is Acceleration Needed? Flux increases above pre-storm level before Dst recovered Non adiabatic Net acceleration Timescale ~ 1-2 days Kim and Chan, [1997]

How do you Produce MeV electrons in the Radiation Belts? Original theory: –Electrons originate from the solar wind –Diffuse inwards towards the planet and gain energy (betatron and Fermi acceleration) –Lost by precipitation into the atmosphere

Adiabatic Invariants Cyclic motion –3 adiabatic invariants If conserved –no net acceleration or loss Acceleration requires breaking 1 or more invariant Requires E, B fields at frequencies –drift ~ mHz –bounce ~ Hz –gyration ~ kHz

Inward Radial Diffusion Breaks 3 rd invariant Conservation of 1 st + 2 nd invariant –Betatron and Fermi acceleration Toroidal cf poloidal waves –Power –Diffusion rates Fluctuations in E, B fields –ULF waves f ~ mHz –~ Pc5 Gradient in phase space density –Transport

Source of ULF Waves Fast solar wind drives Kelvin Helmholtz instabilities SW pressure variations Both drive ULF wave power inside magnetosphere Solar Wind velocity correlated with ULF (Pc 5) wave power [Mann et al., 2004] ULF waves (Pc5) correlated with 1.8 MeV electrons (GEO) ~ 2 day delay

Electron Phase Space Density Peak in MeV electron phase space density observed near 5.5 Re Does not support radial diffusion from the outer magnetosphere Suggests “local” acceleration Chen et al., Nature Physics, [2007] M = 2083 MeV/Gauss

Acceleration by Whistler Mode Waves Diffusion into loss cone E > ~10 keV –Whistler wave growth Diffusion at large pitch angles ~ MeV –Acceleration –Trapping

Local Diffusion Coefficients Whistler mode chorus waves Momentum diffusion more efficient for low fpe/fce –Higher phase velocity Horne et al. GRL, [2003]

CRRES Survey of fpe/fce Meredith et al. [2002]

Concept Injection of ~ keV electrons Temperature anisotropy excites chorus Whistler mode chorus accelerates fraction of population to ~ MeV energies Summers et al. [1998] Horne et al. [2005]

New Wave Acceleration Concept Horne, Nature Physics [2007]

Jupiter - The Problem [Bolton et al., Nature, 2002] Synchrotron radiation indicates intense radiation belt: –50 MeV electrons at L=1.4 Current theory –Acceleration by radial diffusion Could gyro-resonant electron acceleration apply to Jupiter? Differences Dipole moment 20,000 times Earth Io is the main source of plasma Rapid rotation – flux interchange Dust and rings - absorption

Electron Phase Space Density McIlwain and Fillius [1975] Gradient in phase space density should drive inward radial diffusion for L < 10 BUT – to get 50 MeV at L=1.4 still requires a source > 1 MeV at 10 – 15 Rj How is the peak in phase space density produced at L>10?

Whistler Mode Waves at Jupiter

Resonant Diffusion Scaling similar to Earth Energy transfer via whistler mode waves from low to high energy and large pitch angles Trapping inside magnetic field at high energy R = 10 R J

Diffusion Rates Diffusion rates –PADIE code [Glauert and Horne, 2005] –Model wave spectrum from Galileo 13:20- 13:30 SCET –30 o angular spread of waves –Landau and n= +- 1,2,3,4,5 cyclotron resonances –Bounce average over 10 o latitude Energy diffusion peaks outside Io –Wave acceleration Fokker-Planck equation

Gyro-resonant Electron Acceleration at Jupiter 2d Fokker-Planck –Initial flux from Divine and Garrett [1983] –Fixed boundary conditions at 0.3 and 100 MeV –Flux=0 inside loss cone and flat gradient at 90 o Timescale ~ 30 days for flux of MeV electrons to increase by a factor of 10 Timescale is comparable to transport timescale ( days) for thermal plasma Predict anisotropic pitch angle distribution

Production of Synchrotron Radiation Suggest Gyro-resonant electron acceleration provides the missing step Horne et al., Nature Physics, [2008]

Saturn Radiation belt intensity comparable to Earth’s Weak synchrotron emission –Absorption by dust –Weak belts L < 2.3 Radial diffusion for L<6 Santo-Costa et al. [2003] Rapid rotation –Flux interchange Dipole moment 580 times Earth Krimigis et al. [2005]

Saturn How is the peak in phase space density near L=6 produced? Could resonant wave acceleration be important? Armstrong et al. [1983]

Saturn Hospodarsky et al. [2008]

Saturn E < 10 keV – weak precipitation E > 30 keV –Trapped electrons –Acceleration to higher energies Timescale ~ hours-days for >100 keV electrons Formation of pancake Tp > Tz distributions Gyro-resonant acceleration effective Pitch angle diffusion L=7 fpe/fce = 10 Energy diffusion 10 keV MeV keV

New Wave Acceleration Concept Horne, Nature Physics [2007]

Conclusions Universal processes for radiation belt formation –Radial diffusion – for transport and acceleration –Wave-particle interactions – for losses to the atmosphere New Universal processes to add –Gyro-resonant wave-particle interactions – for acceleration –Plasma injection - to drive the waves Leads to a new concept for radiation belt formation –Earth –Jupiter, Saturn – evidence – but requires more testing –Uranus, Neptune? –Exoplanets? Solar context – resonant wave acceleration in solar flares