Highly relativistic electron flux enhancement during the weak geomagnetic storm of April-May 2017

Abstract

We report observations of energetic electron flux and Phase Space Density (PSD) to show that a relatively weak magnetic storm with $Sym-H_{min} \approx -50 $nT, resulted in a relativistic and ultra--relativistic electron enhancement of two orders of magnitude similar to the St. Patrick's event of 2015, an extreme storm with $Sym-H_{min} \approx -235 nT$. This enhancement appeared at energies up to $\approx 10$ MeV, lasted for at least 24 days and was not recorded in geosynchronous orbit where most space weather alert data are collected. By combined analysis of PSD radial profiles and Fokker--Planck simulation, we show that the enhancement of relativistic and ultra--relativistic electrons is caused by different mechanisms: first, chorus waves during the intense substorm injections of April 21--25 accelerate the seed electron population to relativistic energies and redistribute them while inward diffusion driven by Pc5 ULF waves further accelerates them to ultra--relativistic energies.