Relativistic Electron Model in the Outer Radiation Belt Using a Neural Network Approach

Abstract

We present a machine‐learning‐based model of relativistic electron fluxes >1.8 MeV using a neural network approach in the Earth's outer radiation belt. The Outer RadIation belt Electron Neural net model for Relativistic electrons (ORIENT‐R) uses only solar wind conditions and geomagnetic indices as input. For the first time, we show that the state of the outer radiation belt can be determined using only solar wind conditions and geomagnetic indices, without any initial and boundary conditions. The most important features for determining outer radiation belt dynamics are found to be AL, solar wind flow speed and density, and SYM‐H indices. ORIENT‐R reproduces out‐of‐sample relativistic electron fluxes with a correlation coefficient of 0.95 and an uncertainty factor of ∼2. ORIENT‐R reproduces radiation belt dynamics during an out‐of‐sample geomagnetic storm with good agreement to the observations. In addition, ORIENT‐R was run for a completely out‐of‐sample period between March 2018 and October 2019 when the AL index ended and was replaced with the predicted AL index (lasp.colorado.edu/home/personnel/xinlin.li). It reproduces electron fluxes with a correlation coefficient of 0.92 and an out‐of‐sample uncertainty factor of ∼3. Furthermore, ORIENT‐R captured the trend in the electron fluxes from low‐earth‐orbit (LEO) SAMPEX, which is a completely out‐of‐sample data set both temporally and spatially. In sum, the ORIENT‐R model can reproduce transport, acceleration, decay, and dropouts of the outer radiation belt anywhere from short timescales (i.e., geomagnetic storms) and very long timescales (i.e., solar cycle) variations.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2021
Source ID
10.1029/2021sw002808

Entities

People

  • Alfredo Cruz
  • Daniel N. Baker
  • Donglai Ma
  • Geoffrey D Reeves
  • Harlan Spence
  • Hong Zhao
  • Jacob Bortnik
  • Kun Zhang
  • Qianli Ma
  • S. Dave Bouwer
  • W. Kent Tobiska
  • Xiangning Chu
  • Xinlin Li

Organizations

  • Auburn University
  • Boston University
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Space Environment Technologies
  • Space Science Institute
  • University of New Hampshire

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Solar Physics
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Bayesian Inference
  • Microelectronics
  • Space