Calculation of Last Closed Drift Shells for the 2013 GEM Radiation Belt Challenge Events

Abstract

Radiation belt behavior is often analyzed in terms of adiabatic invariants, of which the third roughly characterizes the radial distance of particle drift shells. The outermost, or last closed drift shell, can be an important boundary for numerical modeling, especially for drift‐averaged treatments such as three‐dimensional diffusion codes. Here we discuss calculation of the last closed drift shell, using the widely used International Radiation Belt Environment Modeling (IRBEM) Library, the LanlGeoMag code, and a guiding center code named AFRL‐Shell, in conjunction with a variety of current magnetic field models. We present results for the four events in 2013, comprising the radiation belt challenge organized by the Quantitative Assessment of Radiation Belt Modeling focus group of the Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) program.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2018
Source ID
10.1029/2018ja025991

Entities

People

  • Adam C Kellerman
  • Jay Albert
  • Michael Henderson
  • R. S. Selesnick
  • Steven Morley

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.