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Last closed drift shell (LCDS) has been identified as a crucial parameter for investigating the magnetopause shadowing loss of radiation belt electrons. However, drift orbit bifurcation (DOB) effects have not been physically incorporated into the LCDS calculation. Here we calculate event‐specific LCDS using different approaches to dealing with the DOB effects, that is, tracing field lines ignoring DOB, tracing test particles rejecting field lines with DOB, and tracing particles including field lines with DOB, and then incorporate them into a radial diffusion model to simulate the fast electron dropout observed by Van Allen Probes in May 2017. The model effectively captures the fast dropout at highL*and exhibits the best agreement with data when LCDS is calculated by tracing test particles with DOB more physically included. This study represents the first quantitative modeling of the DOB effects on radiation belt magnetopause shadowing loss via a more physical specification of LCDS.

Magnetopause shadowing (MPS) effect could drive a concurrent dropout of radiation belt electrons and ring current protons. However, its relative role in the dropout of both plasma populations has not been well quantified. In this work, we study the simultaneous dropout of MeV electrons and 100s keV protons during an intense geomagnetic storm in May 2017. A radial diffusion model with an event‐specific last closed drift shell is used to simulate the MPS loss of both populations. The model well captures the fast shadowing loss of both populations atL* > 4.6, while the loss atL* < 4.6, possibly due to the electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave scattering, is not captured. The observed butterfly pitch angle distributions of electron fluxes in the initial loss phase are well reproduced by the model. The initial proton losses at low pitch angles are underestimated, potentially also contributed by other mechanisms such as field line curvature scattering.

During the 9 March 2018 event with two consecutive interplanetary shocks compressing the dayside magnetosphere, the azimuthal mode structure and frequency spectrum of ultra low frequency magnetic pulsations are resolved using a cross‐spectral analysis based on high‐fidelity multi‐probe Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) magnetometer data. The results based on the MMS 4 and MMS 3 pair of measurements show that shock arrival leads to low mode () magnetic fluctuations in the Pc4‐5 regimes, and smaller spatial scale fluctuations implied by the dominant high mode numbers are observed after both shock signatures hit and passed the magnetosphere. Detailed evolution of the mode structure is also shown for the first shock to reveal the development of high mode structure from a bump‐on‐tail distribution atto a dominant peak atin about 10 min. In addition, an interesting change of sign infrom negative to positive is observed as MMS crosses ∼11 MLT pre‐noon, which is consistent with the picture of wave generation by dayside magnetopause compression and then anti‐sunward propagation. For both shocks, the contribution of higher frequency waves (Pc‐4 range compared with Pc‐5) to the total wave power is found to be negligible before and after the shock impact, but it becomes more significant during the shock impact.

Ultra‐low‐frequency (ULF) waves are known to radially diffuse hundreds‐keV to few‐MeV electrons in the magnetosphere, as the range of drift frequencies of such electrons overlaps with the frequencies of the waves, leading to resonant interactions. The theoretical framework for this process is described by analytic expressions of the resonant interactions between electrons and toroidal and poloidal ULF wave modes in a background magnetic field. However, most expressions estimate the radial diffusion rates based on estimates of the power of ULF waves that are obtained either from spacecraft close to the equatorial plane or from the ground. In this study, using multiyear measurements from the THEMIS and Arase missions, we present a statistical analysis of the distribution of ULF wave power in magnetic latitude and local time and show that the wave power of the radial and azimuthal components of the magnetic field increases away from the magnetic equator. Our result could have significant implications for the radial diffusion rates as currently estimated.

Angular response functions are derived for four electron channels and six proton channels of the SEM‐2 MEPED particle telescopes on the POES and MetOp satellites from Geant4 simulations previously used to derive the energy response. They are combined with model electron distributions in energy and pitch angle to show that the vertical 0° telescope, intended to measure precipitating electrons, instead usually measures trapped or quasi‐trapped electrons, except during times of enhanced pitch angle diffusion. A simplified dynamical model of the radiation belt electron distribution near the loss cone, as a function of longitude, energy, and pitch angle, that accounts for pitch angle diffusion, azimuthal drift, and atmospheric backscatter is fit to sample MEPED electron data atL = 4during times of differing diffusion rates. It is then used to compute precipitating electron flux, as function of energy and longitude, that is lower than would be estimated by assuming that the 0° telescope always measures precipitating electrons.

During geomagnetic storms, the magnetic field in the outer belt is known to be significantly distorted by the solar wind, such that the outer belt dynamics can be greatly impacted by the magnetic field topology. In this context, we develop a reduced Fokker‐Planck code that includes the effects related to realistic magnetic field models (by using the existing dedicated LANLGeoMag library) through the steps of preprocessing, postprocessing, and, for the first time, during the computation of the reduced Fokker‐Planck diffusion equation itself. We perform the solutions of the reduced Fokker‐Planck equation in the framework of the geomagnetic storm that occurred from 9 October to 15 October 1990. With the use of Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite observations, the magnetic field model is shown to strongly affect the way of conciliating theory with observations (processing steps). More specifically, we explain analytically and numerically why the use of a dipole field can lead to misleading interpretations on the local enhancements (attributed to local acceleration) displayed by the electron distribution function, resulting in inaccurate simulations results at large L‐shells. The consideration of a realistic field does not produce any artificial peaks. With such corrected data sets, a great part of the dynamics can be described by radial transport and is thus better reproduced by the simulations. This crucial importance of the field geometry is further emphasized with the calculation of unidirectional, omnidirectional, and integral electron fluxes, and their accuracy is quantified thanks to dedicated metrics.