Pitch angle dispersion of drifting energetic protons at synchronous orbit
The time of arrival at ATS 6 of substorm-associated energetic proton flux enhancements has been examined as a function of both energy and pitch angle by using electron-proton spectrometer data. The protons exhibit energy dispersion with the particles with the highest energy arriving first. This has generally been interpreted as evidence that these particles have gradient- and curvature-drifted to the spacecraft from an acceleration region on the nightside. In the evening quadrant, proton enhancements at 90 deg pitch angle arrived at the spacecraft prior to those at small pitch angles. However, on the dayside the increase occurs first at the smallest pitch angle (about 30 degrees). The difference between the arrival times of the 30 deg and 90 deg protons increases for more westward local times. For the highest energy range observed, drifting protons are rarely seen at large pitch angles. These observations place severe restrictions on the simple drift models. Since the pitch angle dependence of the particle drift velocity is a field geometric quantity, the observations require the modification of present magnetospheric magnetic field models. In particular, the models need to reproduce better the enhanced field observed on the dayside near synchronous orbit.