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.
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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. || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.slate_CRTT.HD1080i.0600_print.jpg (1024x576) [113.8 KB] || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.slate_CRTT.HD1080i.0600_searchweb.png (180x320) [83.0 KB] || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.slate_CRTT.HD1080i.0600_thm.png (80x40) [6.0 KB] || ObliqueIntro (1920x1080) [0 Item(s)] || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.HD1080i_p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [77.0 MB] || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.HD1080i_p30.webm (1920x1080) [5.5 MB] || ObliqueIntro (3840x2160) [0 Item(s)] || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.UHD2160_p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [279.0 MB] || LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.HD1080i_p30.mp4.hwshow [210 bytes] || ", "release_date": "2017-03-15T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T23:17:57.002897-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 415779, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004500/a004557/LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.slate_CRTT.HD1080i.0600_print.jpg", "filename": "LeakyBelts_FullData_ObliqueIntro.slate_CRTT.HD1080i.0600_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "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.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 11239, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11239/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Ring Around Our Planet", "description": "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. || ", "release_date": "2013-05-02T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:11.745835-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 465995, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011239/541965main_ArrayDeployment_smaller.jpg", "filename": "541965main_ArrayDeployment_smaller.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The two Van Allen Probes are designed to lap each other many times during the mission, to observe occurrences throughout the belts.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 11212, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11212/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Van Allen Probes Find Storage Ring in Earth's Outer Radiation Belt", "description": "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. || ", "release_date": "2013-02-28T14:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:21.659027-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 467722, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011212/Mona_3_web.png", "filename": "Mona_3_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) program is a space-weather focused and applications driven research program. Its goal is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The program is implemented by a series of inter-related science missions, space environment testbeds, and a targeted theory, modeling, and data analysis program. The Van Allen Probes are the second mission in the LWS program. Credit: NASA", "width": 320, "height": 468, "pixels": 149760 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }