It is suggested that magnetosonic waves (also known as equatorial noise) can scatter radiation belt electrons in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Therefore, it is important to understand the global distribution of these waves between the proton cyclotron frequency and the lower hybrid resonance frequency. In this study, we developed an empirical model for estimating the global distribution of magnetosonic wave amplitudes and wave normal angles. The model is based on the entire mission period (approximately 2012–2019) of observations of Van Allen Probes A and B as a function of the distance from the Earth (denoted by L*), magnetic local time (MLT), magnetic latitude (λ), and geomagnetic activity (denoted by the Kp index). In previous studies the wave distribution inside and outside the plasmasphere were separately investigated and modeled. Our model, on the other hand, identifies the wave distribution along with the ambient plasma environment—defined by the ratio of the plasma frequency (fpe) to the electron cyclotron frequency (fce)—without separately determining the wave distribution according to the plasmapause location. The model results show that, as Kp increases, the dayside wave amplitude in the equatorial region intensifies. It thereby propagates the intense region towards the wider MLT and inward to L* < 4. In contrast, the fpe/fce ratio decreases with increasing Kp for all regions. Nevertheless, the decreasing aspect differs between regions above and below L* = 4. This finding implies that the particle energy and pitch angle that magnetosonic waves can effectively scatter vary depending on the locations and geomagnetic activity. Our model agrees with the statistically observed wave distribution and ambient plasma environment with a coefficient of determination of > 0.9. The model is valid in all MLTs, 2 ≤ L* < 6, |λ| < 20°, and Kp ≤ 6.

In this paper, we present observations of the Space Radiation Detectors (SRDs) onboard the Next Generation Small Satellite-1 (NEXTSat-1) satellite. The SRDs, which are a part of the Instruments for the study of Stable/Storm-time Space (ISSS), consist of the Medium-Energy Particle Detector (MEPD) and the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD). The MEPD can detect electrons, ions, and neutrals with energies ranging from 20 to 400 keV, and the HEPD can detect electrons over an energy range from 0.35 to 2 MeV. In this paper, we report an event where particle flux enhancements due to substorm injections are clearly identified in the MEPD A observations at energies of tens of keV. Additionally, we report a specific example observation of the electron distributions over a wide energy range in which we identify electron spatial distributions with energies of tens to hundreds of keV from the MEPD and with energy ranging up to a few MeV from the HEPD in the slot region and outer radiation belts. In addition, for an ~1.5-year period, we confirm that the HEPD successfully observed the well-known outer radiation belt electron flux distributions and their variations in time and L shell in a way consistent with the geomagnetic disturbance levels. Last, we find that the inner edge of the outer radiation belt is mostly coincident with the plasmapause locations in L, somewhat more consistent at subrelativistic energies than at relativistic energies. Based on these example events, we conclude that the SRD observations are of reliable quality, so they are useful for understanding the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere, including substorms and radiation belt variations.

Energy spectra of electron microbursts from 170 keV to 340 keV have been measured by the solid-state detectors aboard the low-altitude (680 km) polar-orbiting Korean STSAT-1 (Science and Technology SATellite). These measurements have revealed two important characteristics unique to the microbursts: (1) They are produced by a fast-loss cone-filling process in which the interaction time for pitch-angle scattering is less than 50 ms and (2) The e-folding energy of the perpendicular component is larger than that of the parallel component, and the loss cone is not completely filled by electrons. To understand how wave-particle interactions could generate microbursts, we performed a test particle simulation and investigated how the waves scattered electron pitch angles within the timescale required for microburst precipitation. The application of rising-frequency whistler-mode waves to electrons of different energies moving in a dipole magnetic field showed that chorus magnetic wave fields, rather than electric fields, were the main cause of microburst events, which implied that microbursts could be produced by a quasi-adiabatic process. In addition, the simulation results showed that high-energy electrons could resonate with chorus waves at high magnetic latitudes where the loss cone was larger, which might explain the decreased e-folding energy of precipitated microbursts compared to that of trapped electrons.

It is well known that the space radiation dose over the polar route should be carefully considered especially when the space weather shows sudden disturbances such as CME and flares. The National Meteorological Satellite Center (NMSC) and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) recently established a basis for a space radiation service for the public by developing a space radiation prediction model and heliocentric potential (HCP) prediction model. The HCP value is used as a critical input value of the CARI-6 and CARI-6M programs, which estimate the aviation route dose. The CARI-6/6M is the most widely used and confidential program that is officially provided by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The HCP value is given one month late in the FAA official webpage, making it difficult to obtain real-time information on the aviation route dose. In order to overcome this limitation regarding time delay, we developed a HCP prediction model based on the sunspot number variation. In this paper, we focus on the purpose and process of our HCP prediction model development. Finally, we find the highest correlation coefficient of 0.9 between the monthly sunspot number and the HCP value with an eight month time shift.