The Earth's magnetosphere is a very large magnetic structure around the Earth, which gets stretched into a large, teardrop-shaped configuration through its interaction with the solar wind. A number of the magnetic field lines, which they may originate on the Earth, do not connect back to the Earth, but connect into the magnetic field carried by the solar wind. However, near the Earth, the dipole component of the field is stronger than the solar wind field, and this allows all the magnetic field lines to connect back to the Earth, forming (approximately) the classic magnetic dipole configuration. In this region, lower energy electrons and ions, many from the Earth's ionosphere, can become trapped by the magnetic field to form the radiation belts.
The radiation belt model is constructed from particle flux information from the SAMPEX mission, with the flux mapped to constant L-shells of the Earth's dipole magnetic field. The model is anchored to the Earth's geomagnetic field axis, which is not perfectly aligned with the Earth's rotation axis. This creates a small wobble of the radiation belts with time, which can be seen in this visualization.
The data driving the radiation belt structure is time-shifted from the 2003 Halloween solar storms, a series of strong solar eruptions that began in late October 2003 and continued into the first week of November. During this time, the particle content of the belts change rapidly due to the variation in the energetic particle flux from the Sun buffeting the Earth's magnetosphere.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 349318, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3949/#media_group_349318", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "A side view of the Earth's radiation belt and its variation in time.", "items": [ { "id": 321232, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 476330, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003949/RBSPbelts.slate_GSE.HD1080i.1000.jpg", "filename": "RBSPbelts.slate_GSE.HD1080i.1000.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A side view of the Earth's radiation belt and its variation in time.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 321230, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 476323, "url": 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In this visualization, we present the belts in cross-section to provide a better view of their interior structure.The Earth's magnetosphere is a very large magnetic structure around the Earth, and gets stretched into a large, teardrop-shaped configuration through its interaction with the solar wind. A number of the magnetic field lines, while they may originate on the Earth, do not connect back to the Earth, but connect into the magnetic field carried by the solar wind. However, near the Earth, the magnetic dipole component of the field is stronger than the solar wind field, and this allows all the magnetic field lines to connect back to the Earth, forming (approximately) the classic magnetic dipole configuration (Wikipedia). In this region, lower energy electrons and ions, many from the Earth's ionosphere, can become trapped by the magnetic field to form the radiation belts.The radiation belt model is constructed from particle flux information from the SAMPEX mission, with the flux mapped to constant L-shells of the Earth's dipole magnetic field (Wikipedia). The model is anchored to the Earth's geomagnetic field axis, which is not perfectly aligned with the Earth's rotation axis. This creates a small wobble of the radiation belts with time, which can be seen in this visualization.The data driving the radiation belt structure is from the 2003 Halloween solar storms, a series of strong solar eruptions that began in late October 2003 and continued into the first week of November. During this time, the particle content of the belts change rapidly due to the variation in the energetic particle flux from the Sun buffeting the Earth's magnetosphere.This dataset was also used to generate radiation belts for the RBSP prelaunch visualizations. || ", "release_date": "2012-10-31T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T22:18:11.912583-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 471106, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004006/HalloweenBeltProfile.slate_GSE.HD720p.0100.jpg", "filename": "HalloweenBeltProfile.slate_GSE.HD720p.0100.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A movie of changes to the Earth's radiation belts before, during and after the Halloween solar storms of 2003.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } }, { "id": 3951, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3951/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "The Van Allen Probes (formerly Radiation Belt Storm Probes - RBSP) Explore the Earth's Radiation Belts", "description": "The Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) is actually two satellites that will travel on a elliptical orbit around the Earth, ranging between 1.5 and 6 Earth radii. This range covers the inner region of the Earth's geomagnetic field. In this region, many of the magnetic field lines intersect the surface of the Earth in the north and south. This means that lower energy ions and electrons, some 'boiled off' the Earth's ionosphere by solar ultraviolet radiation, can be trapped along these field lines. The charged particles spend their time bouncing between the 'mirror points' in the Earth's magnetic field. This trapped population forms the radiation belts around the Earth. The radiation created by this charged particle population can be hazardous to satellites and astronauts so it is important to understand their characteristics. || ", "release_date": "2012-05-08T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T22:13:03.779126-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 476344, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003951/RBSPstoryC.noslate_GSE.HD720p.1500_web.png", "filename": "RBSPstoryC.noslate_GSE.HD720p.1500_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "RBSP's orbit travels through the geomagnetic field and radiation belts.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 3950, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3950/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Earth's Radiation Belts (cross-section)", "description": "This is a simulation of the Earth's radiation belts. In this version, we've 'sliced' the belts open to provide a better view of their structure in cross-section. The non-cross-section view of the belts is Earth's Radiation Belts (side view)The Earth's magnetosphere is a very large magnetic structure around the Earth, and gets stretched into a large, teardrop-shaped configuration through its interaction with the solar wind. A number of the magnetic field lines, while they may originate on the Earth, do not connect back to the Earth, but connect into the magnetic field carried by the solar wind. However, near the Earth, the dipole component of the field is stronger than the solar wind field, and this allows all the magnetic field lines to connect back to the Earth, forming (approximately) the classic magnetic dipole configuration. In this region, lower energy electrons and ions, many from the Earth's ionosphere, can become trapped by the magnetic field to form the radiation belts.The radiation belt model is constructed from particle flux information from the SAMPEX mission, with the flux mapped to constant L-shells of the Earth's dipole magnetic field. The model is anchored to the Earth's geomagnetic field axis, which is not perfectly aligned with the Earth's rotation axis. This creates a small wobble of the radiation belts with time, which can be seen in this visualization.The data driving the radiation belt structure is time-shifted from the 2003 Halloween solar storms, a series of strong solar eruptions that began in late October 2003 and continued into the first week of November. During this time, the particle content of the belts change rapidly due to the variation in the energetic particle flux from the Sun buffeting the Earth's magnetosphere. || ", "release_date": "2012-05-01T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:05.766949-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 476340, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003950/RBSPbeltprofile.slate_GSE.HD1080i.1000.jpg", "filename": "RBSPbeltprofile.slate_GSE.HD1080i.1000.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A cross-section view of the Earth's radiation belts.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 3942, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3942/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "The Van Allen Probes (formerly RBSP for Radiation Belt Storm Probes) in Earth Orbit", "description": "A basic visualization illustrating the orbit of RBSP around the Earth. This pair of probes will orbit the Earth between about 1.5 and 6 Earth radii to cover the region of the geomagnetically trapped particle radiation. || ", "release_date": "2012-04-19T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:07.448391-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 476824, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003942/RBSPorbits.noslate_GSE.HD720p.0678.jpg", "filename": "RBSPorbits.noslate_GSE.HD720p.0678.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Visualization of the two RBSP probes in Earth orbit.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }