The impact of geocoronal density on ring current development

► For high energy H+ ions all geocoronal H models predict similar decay rates. ► For low energy ions, the decay rate varies significantly between the models. ► The decay rate of ring current ions is pitch angle dependent. ► Ions that bounce farther decay faster yielding higher ENA fluxes closer to Earth. ► Synthetic ENA images are very sensitive to the geocoronal H density distribution.