Transport of energetic solar particles on closed magnetospheric field lines

Whereas the entry mechanism of energetic solar particles into the open field line region of the magnetosphere is now a rather well understood process, transport processes of solar particles in the closed field line region are still unclear and under dispute. The main difficulty lies not only in the fact that different field models predict different behavior of the particles in the quasi-trapping region (e.g. cut-off latitude), but that dynamic changes of the magnetosphere as geomagnetic storms and substorms greatly influence the particle distribution. The present review tries to summarize the status of knowledge regarding solar proton behavior on closed magnetospheric field lines. Together with a presentation of recent measurements in the closed field line region relevant theoretical problems are discussed. They fall either under the study of single particle motion in different static magnetospheric configurations (due to different field models or due to real, e.g. ring current induced changes), or under the study of resonant interaction processes as pitch angle scattering and radial diffusion.Invited Lecture, Second Meeting of the European Geophysical Society, September 1974, Trieste, Italy.