Planetary Radiation Belt Physics

在延伸到太空的行星磁场中，有被困住的高能粒子区域，对航天器和人类都是危险的。这些辐射带强度变化的方式是空间科学科学努力的一个主要焦点。了解太空中这些危险区域的行为原理对于预测它们对航天器构成的危害程度非常重要。在地球上，辐射带科学有两个主要的进展：第一，强烈的电磁波可以通过一种称为回旋共振波粒相互作用的过程将电子的能量增加到极高的相对论能量；第二，通过超低频（ULF）波，电子的传输和加速度大大增加。这两个结果改变了人们普遍接受的关于地球辐射带的观点，这种观点已经持续了40年或更长时间，并刺激了新的卫星任务，如美国宇航局的范艾伦探测器任务，来测试这些观点。在木星和土星的磁场中也观察到强烈的电磁波，这表明相同的共振加速，传输和损失过程对所有行星辐射带都很重要。本提案的目的是验证回旋共振波粒相互作用是木星和土星上主要的电子加速和损失过程的假设，并在这些行星上辐射带的形成中起主要作用。这些结果将有助于确定共振波加速和电子损失是否是一个普遍的过程，这一过程更广泛地适用于太阳和恒星，以及新发现的太阳系外行星。它将有助于为未来的行星航天器任务设定新的研究目标，为年轻科学家提供研究培训，开发将用于航天工业规划未来的外行星任务的计算机模型，并在项目完成后留下将长期持续的理解遗产。

Within the magnetic fields of planets that extend into space are regions of trapped energetic particles that are hazardous to spacecraft and humans. The way these radiation belts vary in intensity is a major focus of scientific endeavour in space science. Understanding the principles of how these dangerous regions in space behave is very important in predicting the level of hazard they pose to spacecraft.At Earth there have been two major advances in radiation belt science: first, that intense electromagnetic waves can increase the energy of electrons to extremely high, relativistic energies via a process called cyclotron resonant wave-particle interactions, and second, that electron transport and acceleration are substantially increased by ultra low frequency (ULF) waves. These two results have transformed generally accepted ideas on the Earth's radiation belts that have lasted 40 years or more, and have spurred new satellite missions such as NASA's Van Allen Probes mission to test these ideas. Intense electromagnetic waves are also observed inside the magnetic fields of Jupiter and Saturn which suggests that the same resonant acceleration, transport and loss processes could be important for all planetary radiation belts. The goal of this proposal is to test the hypothesis that cyclotron resonant wave-particle interactions are major electron acceleration and loss processes at Jupiter and Saturn, and play a major role in the formation of radiation belts at these planets. The results will help determine whether resonant wave acceleration and loss of electrons is a universal process that is more widely applicable to the Sun and stars, as wells the newly discovered planets outside our Solar System. It will help set new research goals for future spacecraft missions to the planets, provide research training for young scientists, develop computer models that will be of use to the space industry in planning future missions to the outer planets, and leave a legacy of understanding that will last long after the completion of the project.