Qualitative correspondence between the simulated extremes and those from data analysis. Extreme electron flux spectra computed four ways in the heart of the outer belt (L*=4.5-4.6) agree to within about a factor of two. The purple ‘x’ indicates the one-in-ten-year flux from the Integral/IREM sensor (see Meredith et al., 2017). The blue ‘x’ are the limiting flux from extreme value analysis of the IREM data. The blue trace is the maximum simulated flux from the IREM interval, and the red trace is the maximum flux from the entire 30-year simulation. Credit: Glauert et al. [2018], Figure 6b
Source: Space Weather

Radiation belts pose internal charging and total dose hazards to satellites. The climatological mean and extreme environments represent critical spacecraft design parameters. Glauert et al. [2018] present a long-term, multi-Solar cycle simulation of the radiation belts. Because satellite designers must generally account for risks associated with a credible worst case Solar cycle, this kind of long simulation represents a first attempt by the scientific community to use a physical simulation to address that risk. Many challenges remain, but the paper nonetheless marks an important milestone on the road from scientific capability to end user need.

Citation: Glauert, S. A., Horne, R. B., & Meredith, N. P. [2018]. A 30‐year simulation of the outer electron radiation belt. Space Weather, 16, 1498–1522. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018SW001981

—Paul O’Brien, Editor, Space Weather

Text © 2018. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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