Van Allen Probes New View of the Radiation Belts

  • Released Thursday, February 28th, 2013
  • Updated Friday, August 25th, 2023 at 12:03AM
  • ID: 4048

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.

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Credits

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


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Datasets used in this visualization

Van Allen Probes ECT (Collected with the Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite sensor)
Observed Data University of New Hampshire

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.