Outer Electron Belt Specification Model

Data assimilation techniques have already been developed and have shown to provide ldquothe bestrdquo estimate of the state of the electron radiation belts. Data assimilation proceeds in analysis cycles-in each analysis cycle, observations of the current (and possibly past) state of a system are combined with the results from a mathematical model (the forecast) to produce an analysis, which is considered as the best estimate of the current state of the system. In this paper, such an analysis has been performed from January 1990 to December 2006 and has produced full electron radiation belt state every 20 min. Then, based on this 17 year run, a new outer electron belt specification model is developed: we perform a data synthesis to deduce a yearly average electron belt state over a full solar cycle. Lastly, this new specification model for the Earth's radiation belt is compared to existing specification models.