Radial Diffusion Driven by Spatially Localized ULF Waves in the Earth's Magnetosphere

Abstract

Ultra-Low Frequency (ULF) waves are critical drivers of particle acceleration and loss in the Earth's magnetosphere. While statistical models of ULF-induced radial transport have traditionally assumed that the waves are uniformly distributed across magnetic local time (MLT), decades of observational evidence show significant MLT localization of ULF waves in the Earth's magnetosphere. This study presents, for the first time, a quasi-linear radial diffusion coefficient accounting for localized ULF waves. We demonstrate that even though quasi-linear radial diffusion is averaged over drift orbits, MLT localization significantly alters the efficiency of particle transport. Our results reveal that when ULF waves cover more than 30\% of the MLT, the radial diffusion efficiency is comparable to that of uniform wave distributions. However, when ULF waves are confined within 10\% of the drift orbit, the diffusion coefficient is enhanced by 10 to 25\%, indicating that narrowly localized ULF waves are efficient drivers of radial transport.