Strong atmospheric disturbances as a possible origin of inner zone particle diffusion

Abstract. A new mechanism of the atmosphere-magnetosphere interaction, which might be called "acoustic-magnetospheric cyclotron accelerator", is proposed. The idea of this mechanism stems from the fact that strong acoustical perturbations in the ionosphere (e.g., due to earthquakes, thunderstorms, etc.) may generate magnetic disturbances in the magnetosphere. Then, the latter will induce local resonant acceleration and subsequent inward diffusion of trapped particles. This idea may be fruitful in the interpretation of some occasional increases in inner zone particle fluxes which do not correlate with the solar or magnetospheric activities.

Key words. Ionosphere (active experiments; ionosphere-atmosphere interactions; particle acceleration)