Do more with one link - claim and personalize your FREE link today! Effortlessly schedule, video meet, message chat, network, share materials, e-sign, etc – all in one spot. Collaborate, Nurture connections, Improve client services, Expedite deal closures, and more. 💼 Join FREE!!

Recent Comments

    Van Allen Belts tagged posts

    Researchers track slowly splitting ‘Dent’ in Earth’s Magnetic Field

    August 19, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    Earth’s magnetic field acts like a protective shield around the planet, repelling and trapping charged particles from the Sun. But over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, an unusually weak spot in the field – called the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA – allows these particles to dip closer to the surface than normal. Currently, the SAA creates no visible impacts on daily life on the surface. However, recent observations and forecasts show that the region is expanding westward and continuing to weaken in intensity. The South Atlantic Anomaly is also of interest to NASA’s Earth scientists who monitor the changes in magnetic strength there, both for how such changes affect Earth’s atmosphere and as an indicator of what’s happening to Earth’s magnetic fields, deep inside the globe...
    Read More

    Relativistic electrons uncovered with NASA’s Van Allen Probes

    March 20, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    During a strong geomagnetic storm, electrons at relativistic energies, which are usually only found in the outer radiation belt, are pushed in close to Earth and populate the inner belt. While the electrons in the slot region quickly decay, the inner belt electrons can remain for many months. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

    During a strong geomagnetic storm, electrons at relativistic energies, which are usually only found in the outer radiation belt, are pushed in close to Earth and populate the inner belt. While the electrons in the slot region quickly decay, the inner belt electrons can remain for many months.
    Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keithm

    New observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission show that the fastest, most energetic electrons in the inner radiation belt are not present as much of the time as previously thought. The results show that there typically isn’t as much radiation in the inner belt as previously assumed – good news for spacecraft flying in the region.

    Past space missions have not been able to distinguish electrons from high-energy protons in the in...

    Read More

    NASA’s Van Allen probes Revolutionize View of Radiation Belts

    January 20, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    (Illustration) At the highest electron energies measured — above 1 megaelectron volt (Mev) — researchers saw electrons in the outer belt only. Credits: NASA Goddard/Duberstein

    (Illustration) At the highest electron energies measured — above 1 megaelectron volt (Mev) — researchers saw electrons in the outer belt only. Credits: NASA Goddard/Duberstein

    600 miles from Earth’s surface is the 1st of 2 donut-shaped electron swarms, Van Allen Belts, or radiation belts. Understanding the shape and size of the belts, which shrink and swell in response to incoming radiation from the sun, is crucial for protecting technology in space. Scientists wish to know just which orbits could be jeopardized in different situations.

    “The shape of the belts is actually quite different depending on what type of electron you’re looking at,” said Geoff Reeves . “Electrons at different energy levels are distributed differently in these regions...

    Read More