Microburst precipitation of energetic electrons associated with chorus wave generation

Abstract

Electron microbursts, which are short‐duration (<1 sec) bursts of energetic electrons that precipitate into the Earth's atmosphere, comprise an important loss process from the outer radiation belt. By means of a self‐consistent full‐particle simulation, we show that microburst precipitation of electrons of energies 10 keV–100 keV accompanies the generation of discrete bursty chorus wave emissions. Specifically, we demonstrate a one‐to‐one correspondence between the electron microbursts and the generation of discrete chorus elements. This simulation study is the first to establish such an exact correlation between electron microbursts and the generation of chorus elements.