Team focus

The focus of the team is on compiling what is known and what is still unknown regarding the
physics of plasma sheet and inner magnetospheric 1-100 keV electrons and their precipitation into
the ionosphere. While several studies, including recent machine-learning models, have quantified the
hours-and-longer flux variations of these electrons, their most intense fluctuations occur on a time
scale of minutes with strong local time (MLT)-dependence. Models cannot account for these large
changes on smaller spatial and temporal scales. Furthermore, while we know the fundamental
connections between plasma waves and keV-electron scattering, predicting when and how much
precipitation will occur for any particular space weather event is difficult. That is, it has been very
hard to find definite dependencies for the drivers of precipitation. This ISSI team would conduct a
thorough review of the state of knowledge about keV electrons to codify what is known, then use this
to create a list of goals for achieving significant advancement on this topic.