Electron pitch-angle diffusion: resonant scattering by waves vs. nonadiabatic effects

Abstract. In this paper we investigate the electron pitch-angle diffusion coefficients in the night-side inner magnetosphere around the geostationary orbit (L ~ 7) due to magnetic field deformation. We compare the effects of resonant wave–particle scattering by lower band chorus waves and the adiabaticity violation of electron motion due to the strong curvature of field lines in the vicinity of the equator. For a realistic magnetic field configuration, the nonadiabatic effects are more important than the wave–particle interactions for high energy (> 1 MeV) electrons. For smaller energy, the scattering by waves is more effective than nonadiabatic one. Moreover, the role of nonadiabatic effects increases with particle energy. Therefore, to model electron scattering and transport in the night-side inner magnetosphere, it is important to take into account the peculiarities of high-energy electron dynamics.