Which Parameter Controls Ring Current Electron Dynamics

Predicting the electron population of Earth’s ring current during geomagnetic storms still remains a challenging task. In this work, we investigate sensitivity 10 keV electrons to different driving processes, parameterised by Kp index, several moderate and intense storms. Results are validated against measurements from Van Allen Probes satellites. Perturbing index allows us identify most dominant processes for respectively. We find that (Kp < 6) drift velocities mostly control behaviour low energy electrons, while loss wave-particle interactions is critical parameter quantifying evolution id="m2">> 6). Perturbations used drive boundary conditions at GEO set plasmapause location only show minimal effect on simulation results over limited L range. It further shown flux ∼ 3 more sensitive changes in compared higher shells, making it good proxy validating source-loss balance model.