Van Allen Probes New View of the Radiation Belts

  • Released Thursday, February 28, 2013
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This visualization is constructed from some of the first data from the Van Allen Probes (formerly RBSP).

The belts are constructed from particle samples by the probes as they pass through the belt, so each 3-D snapshot corresponds to the outward or inward portion of the probes' orbit.

The major result from this early data is the recognition of a third radiation belt (the outer belt appears to actually be two belts).

Cross-Section cutaway of the Van Allen belts measured by the Van Allen Probes. Particle flux is represented by color, with blue and green as lower fluxes and orange and red corresponds to high particle flux.

Full 3-D belt visualization.

For More Information

See http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/28feb_thirdbelt/

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, February 28, 2013.
This page was last updated on Sunday, January 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM EST.

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

Datasets used

  • ECT [Van Allen Probes: Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite]

    ID: 828
    Type: Observed Data Sensor: Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite Collected by: University of New Hampshire
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Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.