  Observations of energetic electrons (10 - 300 keV) by NOAA/POES and DMSP
satellites at heights <1000 km during the period from 1999 to 2010 allowed
finding abnormal intense fluxes of ~10^6 - 10^7 cm-2 s-1 sr-1 for quasi-trapped
electrons appearing within the forbidden zone of low latitudes over the
African, Indo-China, and Pacific regions. Extreme fluxes appeared often in the
early morning and persisted for several hours during the maximum and recovery
phase of geomagnetic storms. We analyzed nine storm-time events when extreme
electron fluxes first appeared in the Eastern Hemisphere, then drifted further
eastward toward the South-Atlantic Anomaly. Using the electron spectra, we
estimated the possible ionization effect produced by quasi-trapped electrons in
the topside ionosphere. The estimated ionization was found to be large enough
to satisfy observed storm-time increases in the ionospheric total electron
content determined for the same spatial and temporal ranges from global
ionospheric maps. Additionally, extreme fluxes of quasi-trapped electrons were
accompanied by the significant elevation of the low-latitude F-layer obtained
from COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 radio occultation measurements. We suggest that the
storm-time ExB drift of energetic electrons from the inner radiation belt is an
important driver of positive ionospheric storms within low-latitude and
equatorial regions.
