The Ring Current Origin

• 30’s/50’s Chapman-Ferraro / Alfven view from SW

• 60’s Radiation Belt “diffusion”

• 70’s Explorer 45, Hoffman “Nose events”

  • Increased Convection E-field, brings plasmasheet ions deep into the magnetosphere. The “notch filter” permits only certain energy/PA’s deepest access. Partial RC forms. Then cross-L transport circularizes the RC

• 80’s Spjeldvik, Sheldon, Kozyra, Fok, Jordanova, Chen...

• 90’s POLAR/IMAGE ENA satisfying confirmation

Notes: