Quantifying the radiation belt seed population in the 17 March 2013 electron acceleration event

We present phase space density (PSD) observations using data from the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer instrument on the Van Allen Probes for the 17 March 2013 electron acceleration event. We confirm previous results and quantify how PSD gradients depend on the first adiabatic invariant. We find a systematic difference between the lower-energy electrons (< few 100keV) originating from the plasma sheet and higher-energy electrons > 1MeV with a source region within the radiation belts. Our observations show that the source process begins with enhancements to the 10s-100skeV energy seed population, followed by enhancements to the > 1MeV population and eventually leading to enhancements in the multi-MeV electron population. These observations provide the clearest evidence to date of the timing and nature of the radial transport of a 100s keV electron seed population into the heart of the outer belt and subsequent local acceleration of those electrons to higher radiation belt energies.