Accurately characterising the importance of wave-particle interactions in radiation belt dynamics: the pitfalls of statistical wave representations

Wave-particle interactions play a crucial role in energetic particle dynamics in the Earth's radiation belts. However the relative importance of different wave-modes in these dynamics is poorly understood. Typically this is assessed during geomagnetic storms using statistically averaged empirical wave models as a function of geomagnetic activity in advanced radiation belt simulations. However statistical averages poorly characterise extreme events such as geomagnetic storms in that storm-time ULF wave power is typically larger than that derived over a solar cycle and Kp is a poor proxy for storm-time wave power.