Electron earthward transport in the Earth magnetotail: adiabatic convection heating and magnetic curvature scattering

<p>The near-Earth electron population is largely formed by earthward electron transport from the middle and distant magnetotail. Such transport is associated by electron adiabatic heating by the convection electric field. Although the adiabatic heating models predict formation of strongly anisotropic electron populations, spacecraft observations show that hot electrons are well isotropic in the near-Earth magnetotail. One of the possible isotropisation mechanisms is the electron scattering by magnetic field line curvature in the magnetotail current sheet with the stretched magnetic field line configuration.  In this presentation we show model results of electron transport and curvature scattering for slow magnetosphere convection. Our model combines the canonical theory of the electron guiding center motion and the mapping technique of electron pitch-angle scattering. We show formation of electron spectra typical for the near-Earth magnetotail and estimate the contribution of the curvature scattering to electron losses.</p>