Bursty Precipitation of Relativistic Electrons Unveiled by CIRBE/REPTile‐2 Measurements and Their Physical Implications

Abstract Energetic electron precipitation plays a pivotal role in shaping Earth's radiation belt dynamics and drives significant physical and chemical changes in the upper atmosphere. However, the detailed mechanisms governing the loss of relativistic electrons have remained unclear, largely due to the limited energy coverage and coarse resolution of previous measurements. Here we report high‐resolution observations of bursty electron precipitation across a broad energy range (0.3–2.3 MeV), obtained by the Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment‐2 (REPTile‐2) onboard the Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) CubeSat. REPTile‐2 employs a novel instrument design that minimizes background to enable clean spectral measurements with the highest energy resolution achieved to date in low‐Earth orbit for this energy range. During the conjunction events when CIRBE was close to the same field line with Arase satellite at higher altitudes, our analysis shows that pitch angle diffusion driven by chorus waves can fully account for the observed three bursty precipitation events over the entire energy range. These results provide the definitive evidence for a unified chorus‐driven electron loss process acting across a wide energy range and underscore the critical importance of high‐resolution measurements in resolving long‐standing uncertainties in radiation belt dynamics. Furthermore, they offer new insight into the energy‐dependent atmospheric impacts of electron precipitation, with broad implications for space weather forecasting and upper atmospheric chemistry.

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Publication Details

Journal
AGU Advances
Published
2026-01-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2025av001913
Primary Topic
Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Bursty Precipitation of Relativistic Electrons Unveiled by CIRBE/REPTile‐2 Measurements and Their Physical Implications

Hong Zhao, Declan O’Brien, M. Temerin, T. Mitani et al.
AGU Advances
Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
article

Bursty Precipitation of Relativistic Electrons Unveiled by CIRBE/REPTile‐2 Measurements and Their Physical Implications

Hong Zhao, Declan O’Brien, M. Temerin, T. Mitani, X. Li, T. Takashima, David Brennan, Theodore Sarris, Yang Mei, Qianli Ma, Yoshizumi Miyoshi, Yoshiya Kasahara, Daniel N. Baker, Zheng Xiang
article en

Abstract

Abstract Energetic electron precipitation plays a pivotal role in shaping Earth's radiation belt dynamics and drives significant physical and chemical changes in the upper atmosphere. However, the detailed mechanisms governing the loss of relativistic electrons have remained unclear, largely due to the limited energy coverage and coarse resolution of previous measurements. Here we report high‐resolution observations of bursty electron precipitation across a broad energy range (0.3–2.3 MeV), obtained by the Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment‐2 (REPTile‐2) onboard the Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) CubeSat. REPTile‐2 employs a novel instrument design that minimizes background to enable clean spectral measurements with the highest energy resolution achieved to date in low‐Earth orbit for this energy range. During the conjunction events when CIRBE was close to the same field line with Arase satellite at higher altitudes, our analysis shows that pitch angle diffusion driven by chorus waves can fully account for the observed three bursty precipitation events over the entire energy range. These results provide the definitive evidence for a unified chorus‐driven electron loss process acting across a wide energy range and underscore the critical importance of high‐resolution measurements in resolving long‐standing uncertainties in radiation belt dynamics. Furthermore, they offer new insight into the energy‐dependent atmospheric impacts of electron precipitation, with broad implications for space weather forecasting and upper atmospheric chemistry.

AGU AdvancesVol. 7(1)
Kanazawa University (JP), Boston University (US), Democritus University of Thrace (GR), University of California, Los Angeles (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Wuhan University of Technology (CN), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JP), Wuhan University (CN), Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (US), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (JP), Wuhan University of Science and Technology (CN), Nagoya University (JP), Auburn University (US), University of California, Berkeley (US)
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Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
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