The relativistic electrons in the inner radiation belt have received little attention in the past due to sparse measurements and unforgiving contamination from the inner belt protons. The high-quality measurements of the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer instrument onboard Van Allen Probes provide a great opportunity to investigate the dynamics of relativistic electrons in the low L region. In this letter, we report the newly unveiled pitch angle distribution (PAD) of the energetic electrons with minima at 90° near the magnetic equator in the inner belt and slot region. Such a PAD is persistently present throughout the inner belt and appears in the slot region during storms. One hypothesis for 90° minimum PADs is that off 90° electrons are preferentially heated by chorus waves just outside the plasmapause (which can be at very low L during storms) and/or fast magnetosonic waves which exist both inside and outside the plasmasphere.
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Zhao et al. (2014) studied this question.