The Contribution of Time Domain Structures to Electron Loss During the 17 March 2013 Geomagnetic Storm

Abstract Ring current modeling has been a subject of active research in the last two decades. However, accurately modeling of this population of particles remains a challenge. Several recent studies have demonstrated that ring current models can overestimate the trapped electron flux in the 10–50 keV range by up to two orders of magnitude during geomagnetic storms. This discrepancy can be attributed to an insufficient representation of electron loss processes, particularly the pitch‐angle scattering in the pre‐midnight sector. Time domain structures (TDS) can drive precipitation of electrons with energies of a few keV. In this study, we quantify TDS‐induced scattering during the 17 March 2013 geomagnetic storm and incorporate the corresponding electron lifetimes into the four‐dimensional Versatile near‐Earth environment of Radiation Belts and ring current (VERB‐4D) model. The TDS properties were derived from Van Allen Probes waveform observations and used to scale quasi‐linear diffusion coefficients. Our results show that, using the estimated upper bound of observed TDS electric field amplitudes, TDS can significantly contribute to the electron loss. Nevertheless, even under such favorable assumptions, TDS‐driven scattering alone cannot fully account for the electron loss that is inferred from the comparison with observations.