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Heliophysics Science Division
Sciences and Exploration Directorate - NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

November 8, 2010, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

November 8, 2010, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Progress on Modeling Wave-Particle Interactions in the Radiation Belts



Jay Albert (Air Force Research Laboratory)

Wave-particle interactions in the radiation belts are usually modeled with quasi-linear diffusion, but large amplitude waves can readily yield nonlinear behavior. Detailed codes can treat the interactions self-consistently, but are not convenient for large-scale simulations. However, they verify the concepts of phase bunching and phase trapping, which can be treated semi- analytically for parasitic (non-self-consistent) interactions of test particles with fully developed waves. The results can be formulated as advection coefficients in energy and equatorial pitch angle, and used in a generalized diffusion-advection equation. Wave measurements are just becoming available to allow realistic modeling of this kind. The approach will be reviewed, and preliminary calculations will be presented.

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