The effects of geomagnetic storms on electrons in Earth's radiation belts

We use Van Allen Probes data to investigate the responses of tens of keV to 2 MeV electrons throughout a broad range of the radiation belts (2.5 ≤ L ≤ 6.0) during 52 geomagnetic storms from the most recent solar maximum. Electron storm time responses are highly dependent on both electron energy and L shell. Tens of keV electrons typically have peak fluxes in the inner belt or near‐Earth plasma sheet and fill the inner magnetosphere during storm main phases. Approximately 100 to ~600 keV electrons are enhanced in up to 87% of cases around L ~3.7, and their peak flux location moves to lower L shells during storm recovery phases. Relativistic electrons (≥~1 MeV) are nearly equally likely to produce enhancement, depletion, and no‐change events in the outer belt. We also show that the L shell of peak flux correlates to storm magnitude only for hundreds of keV electrons.