On the Source and Loss of Inner Belt Electrons

该项目是美国国家科学基金会资助的支持科罗拉多学生空间气象实验（CSSWE）立方体卫星的成功项目的后续项目。立方体卫星测量了地球辐射带中的高能电子。了解内辐射带电子布居对国家安全和商业利益具有重要意义。高能电子可以损坏或破坏航天器的功能。该项目产生的科学成果将有助于改进预测性空间气象模型。这直接符合2015年发布的《国家空间气象战略和行动计划》的目标。拟议的工作将资助一名STEM女研究生，并最大限度地提高NSF资助的CSSWE CubeSat的科学回报。 CSSWE CubeSat最近发现，宇宙射线反照率中子衰变（CRAND）在内部辐射带中产生了电子种群，并对辐射带其他地方的电子种群做出了贡献。拟议的研究将确定CRAND电子在内带的相对贡献，CRAND人口的太阳周期依赖性，以及被捕获的内带电子的俯仰角散射率和寿命。CSSWE的电子观测将与DEMETER/IDP和SAMPEX/PET卫星数据一起进行沿着分析。将生成包含扩散性小角度大气散射和非扩散性广角散射的既定CRAND模型，并将其与卫星数据拟合。拟议中的工作是独特的，因为它试图了解内辐射带电子的沉淀损失，包括从CRAND产生的人口的贡献。CSSWE在过去几年中公布了新的研究结果，在此之前，CRAND的数量并不重要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is a follow-on to successful NSF funded programs supporting the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE) CubeSat. The CubeSat took measurements of energetic electrons in the Earth's radiation belts. Understanding the populations of inner radiation belt electrons is important to national security and commercial interests. The energetic electrons can damage or destroy space craft functioning. The resulting scientific results from the project will lead to improvement of predictive space weather models. This fits directly into the goals of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan, released in 2015. The proposed work will fund a female graduate student in STEM and maximize the science return from the NSF funded CSSWE CubeSat. The CSSWE CubeSat recently discovered that Cosmic Ray Albedo Neutron Decay (CRAND) produces a population of electrons in the inner radiation belt and contributes to electron populations elsewhere in the radiation belts. The proposed research will determine the relative contribution of CRAND electrons in the inner belt, the solar cycle dependence of the CRAND population, and the pitch angle scattering rate and lifetime of trapped inner belt electrons. Electron observations from the CSSWE will be analyzed along with DEMETER/IDP and SAMPEX/PET satellite data. Established CRAND models incorporating diffusive small-angle atmospheric scattering and non-diffusive wide-angle scattering will be generated and fit to the satellite data. The proposed work is unique in that it seeks to understand the precipitation loss of inner radiation belt electrons including the contribution from the CRAND produced population. The CRAND population was not known to be significant before the new results from CSSWE published within the last few years.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.