Van Allen Probes New View of the Radiation Belts

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  • 
    ID: 4557 Visualization

    Leaky Radiation Belts

    March 15th, 2017
    (updated Aug. 25th, 2023)

    This visualization opens with a full view of the radiation belt of trapped electrons circling Earth. We open a slice of the belts, to display a cross-section for clarity and move the camera to a more equatorial view. Earth rotation and solar motion have been turned off for this visualization to reduce distracting additional motions. || Since their discovery at the dawn of the Space Age, Earth's radiation belts continue to reveal new complex structures and behaviors.During a particularly intense event in late June 2015, the inner edge of the region of trapped electrons moved closer to Earth. The electrons of interest had energies in excess of a million electron volts (Wikipedia). As the region retreated outward, it left behind a population of high-energy electrons forming another radiation belt inside the L=2 shell (The 'L-shell' value identifies a field line in a magnetic dipole. The numerical value corresponds to the furthest distance from Earth in Earth radii, in this case two Earth radii). This flux of high-energy electrons persisted considerably longer than expected, the relativistic electrons slowly leaking away. It took over a year for the relativistic electron flux in the belt to decline below the level of detectability for the instruments on the Van Allen Probes.The 3-dimensional radiation belt model in the visualizations above was constructed by propagating electron flux measurements, corresponding to a given time and distance from Earth measured by the Van Allen Probes, along a 3-dimensional structure of magnetic dipole field lines. ||

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  • 
    ID: 11239 Produced Video

    Ring Around Our Planet

    May 2nd, 2013
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Within days of its launch on August 30, 2012, NASA's Van Allen Probes collected data that will rewrite textbooks. The mission consists of two spacecraft orbiting through the radiation belts encircling Earth. Scientists want to understand what causes the changing shapes of the belts—a region that can sometimes swell dramatically in response to incoming energy from the sun, posing a threat to satellites and spacecraft. Inner and outer radiation belts were discovered in 1958 with instruments on the very first U.S. satellites sent into space. But in September 2012 something happened that had never been recorded before: the particles that make up the belts settled into a new configuration, separating into three belts instead of two. The third belt lasted for four weeks, proving that the Van Allen Probes have much left to explore in near-Earth space. Watch the visualization to see what the Van Allen Probes observed. ||

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  • 
    ID: 11212 Produced Video

    Van Allen Probes Find Storage Ring in Earth's Outer Radiation Belt

    Feb. 28th, 2013
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Since their discovery over 50 years ago, the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts have been considered to consist of two distinct zones of trapped, highly energetic charged particles. Observations from NASA's Van Allen Probes reveal an isolated third ring in the outer radiation belt. || Pictured from left to right: William Pickering, James Van Allen, Werner Von Braun holding up a model of Explorer 1 after its successful launch in 1958. Credit: NASARight: Van Allen and the discovery of the radiation belts, featured on the cover of Time magazine on May 4, 1959. Credit: Time. ||

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