NASA researchers discovered a third radiation belt surrounding the Earth, using the Van Allen Probes. Until now, only two radiation belts, known as Van Allen belts, were known to exist.
The Van Allen Belts were discovered in 1958 and named after the man who discovered them, James Van Allen.The belts can pose threats to our communication and GPS satellites when they swell due the effects of solar storms and space weather. Humans in space are also at risk when this phenomenon occurs.
Last year in August, researchers launched Van Allen Probes to study the two belts that surround the circumference of the Earth. Usually, the on-board instruments of any new satellite in space are turned on one by one over a period of several months.Tests are then completed on the instruments to ensure they are working correctly. During this mission, the team decided to request that the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) be turned on earlier than scheduled. Another mission called SAMPEX (Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer) was about to de-orbit. The team wanted its observations to catch the event as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The decision was a good call; through REPT the team was able to observe trapped particles in the belts and record data.They then observed the particles settle into a new configuration and a third belt was visible. Within just three days into its launch, the Van Allen Probes helped scientists make this new discovery. "By the fifth day REPT was on, we could plot out our observations and watch the formation of a third radiation belt," said Shri Kanekal, the deputy mission scientist for the Van Allen Probes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
"The fantastic new capabilities and advances in technology in the Van Allen Probes have allowed scientists to see in unprecedented detail how the radiation belts are populated with charged particles and will provide insight on what causes them to change, and how these processes affect the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington.
