Operational Outer Zone Energetic Charged Particle Model

Earths outer radiation belt, which consists of electrons with hundreds of keV to MeV energies, is a highly dynamic and driven environment.The large variations in electron flux, if unaccounted for, can cause satellites that travel through this complex region to experience anomalous behavior ranging from temporary satellite outages due to electrostatic discharge events in system electronics to potentially catastrophic damage of important satellite instruments, which lead to complete mission failure.The environment a given satellite encounters throughout its life effects on the probability and modes of failure it may encounter.Even with a large deployment of satellites, it is practically impossible to create an array of satellites that can effectively provide a 3D picture of the radiation belts and to fully capture the physics necessary to accurately estimate energetic electron flux.An assimilated model, that combines both spacecraft data and physical modeling, is necessary to fill this role.Although previous models may simulate GEO and HEO electron fluxes relatively well, they do not include any drift physics, which is particularly important for LEO satellites. Our proposed model which includes radial diffusion, pitch angle diffusion, and azimuthal drift, serves as a better general purpose operational radiation belt model.