Lightning-induced electron precipitation from the magnetosphere

Precipitation of radiation belt particles induced by whistlers that are generated by atmospheric lightning discharges and propagate over L shells of 2-4.5 is considered. Using a test particle model of the whistler-particle interaction, the energy spectra and temporal profile of whistler-induced fluxes as a function of L shell are quantitatively determined for a representative plasmaspheric cold plasma distribution. Results indicate that for higher energy electron precipitation (E greater than 40 keV) there exists an inner magnetospheric region (L between 2 and 3) where the level of whistler-induced precipitation can be expected to be comparatively high. Implications of this finding in terms of observational results are discussed.