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.

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Credits

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

Release date

This page was originally published on Thursday, February 28, 2013.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 12:04 AM EST.


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Datasets used in this visualization

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

    ID: 828
    Observed Data Collected with Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite 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.