NASA Van Allen Probes Reveal One Belt Instead of Two During Storms

We've gotten a brand new view of the Van Allen Belts, thanks to NASA's Van Allen probes. The new findings may reveal a bit more about how to protect our technology in space from harmful radiation.

About 600 miles from Earth's surface is the first of two doughnut-shaped electron swarms, known as the Van Allen Belts. These belts can shrink and swell in response to incoming radiation from the sun. Knowing when this occurs is important for protecting satellites from the harsh radiation caused by the belts.

"The shape of the belts is actually quite different depending on what type of electron you're looking at," said Geoff Reeves, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Electrons at different energy levels are distributed differently in these regions."

Rather than the classic picture of radiation belts, which include a small inner belt and a larger outer belt, the new analysis shows that the shape can vary from a single, continuous belt with no slot region to a larger inner belt with a smaller outer belt to no inner belt at all. Many of the differences are accounted for by considering electrons at different energy levels separately.

"It's like listening to different parts of a song," said Geoff Reeves, one of the researchers. "The bass line sounds different from the vocals, and the vocals are different from the drums, and so on."

The researchers found that the inner belt is, in reality, much larger than the outer belt when observing electrons with low energies. The outer belt is actually larger when observing electrons at higher energies. At the very highest energies, the structure of the belt is missing completely.

"When we look across a broad range of energies, we start to see some consistencies in storm dynamics," said Reeves. "The electron response at different energy levels differs in the details, but there is some common behavior. For example, we found that electrons fade from the slot regions quickly after a geomagnetic storm, but the location of the slot region depends on the energy of the electrons."

The findings reveal a bit more about these belts, which may allow researchers to better predict how best to position satellites.

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