Citation: | Ma, X., Xiang, Z., Ni, B. B., Fu, S., Cao, X., Hua, M., Guo, D. Y., Guo, Y. J., Gu, X. D., Liu, Z. Y. and Zhu, Q. (2020). On the loss mechanisms of radiation belt electron dropouts during the 12 September 2014 geomagnetic storm. Earth Planet. Phys., 4(6), 598–610. doi: 10.26464/epp2020060 |
Radiation belt electron dropouts indicate electron flux decay to the background level during geomagnetic storms, which is commonly attributed to the effects of wave-induced pitch angle scattering and magnetopause shadowing. To investigate the loss mechanisms of radiation belt electron dropouts triggered by a solar wind dynamic pressure pulse event on 12 September 2014, we comprehensively analyzed the particle and wave measurements from Van Allen Probes. The dropout event was divided into three periods: before the storm, the initial phase of the storm, and the main phase of the storm. The electron pitch angle distributions (PADs) and electron flux dropouts during the initial and main phases of this storm were investigated, and the evolution of the radial profile of electron phase space density (PSD) and the (