1. Very-Low-Frequency transmitters bifurcate energetic electron belt in near-earth space
- Author
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Xudong Gu, Jacob Bortnik, Alexander A. Green, Xiaochen Shen, Wen Li, Song Fu, Seth G. Claudepierre, Zheng Xiang, Qianli Ma, Geoffrey D. Reeves, Man Hua, and Binbin Ni
- Subjects
Diffusion (acoustics) ,Waveguide (electromagnetism) ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Science ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Electron ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Earth radius ,Plasma physics ,Physics::Geophysics ,Space physics ,0103 physical sciences ,Very low frequency ,Particle radiation ,lcsh:Science ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Computer Science::Information Theory ,Physics ,Multidisciplinary ,Transmitter ,Astronomy and planetary science ,General Chemistry ,Computational physics ,Magnetospheric physics ,Physics::Space Physics ,Satellite ,lcsh:Q ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
Very-Low-Frequency (VLF) transmitters operate worldwide mostly at frequencies of 10–30 kilohertz for submarine communications. While it has been of intense scientific interest and practical importance to understand whether VLF transmitters can affect the natural environment of charged energetic particles, for decades there remained little direct observational evidence that revealed the effects of these VLF transmitters in geospace. Here we report a radially bifurcated electron belt formation at energies of tens of kiloelectron volts (keV) at altitudes of ~0.8–1.5 Earth radii on timescales over 10 days. Using Fokker-Planck diffusion simulations, we provide quantitative evidence that VLF transmitter emissions that leak from the Earth-ionosphere waveguide are primarily responsible for bifurcating the energetic electron belt, which typically exhibits a single-peak radial structure in near-Earth space. Since energetic electrons pose a potential danger to satellite operations, our findings demonstrate the feasibility of mitigation of natural particle radiation environment., Very-Low-Frequency (VLF) communication transmitters, operate worldwide, radiate emissions at particular frequencies 10-30 kHz. Here, the authors show VLF transmitter emissions that leak from the Earth’s ground are primarily responsible for bifurcating the energetic electron belt over 20–100 keV. more...
- Published
- 2020
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