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E-book Physics of Earth’s Radiation Belts Theory and Observations

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Penilaian

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The discovery of radiation belts dates back to the dawn of the space age when theknowledge of the physical properties of the magnetosphere was still in its infancy. InFebruary 1958 the first U.S. satelliteExplorerI1carried a Geiger–Müller instrumentthat was designed to measure cosmic radiation. It indeed did so until the space craft reached the altitude of about 700 km when the instrument mysteriously fell silent.The observations fromExplorerIII confirmedExplorerI observations only a monthlater. In their seminal paper James Van Allen and his co-workers (Van Allen et al.1958) suggested that the instrument was saturated due to high-intensity corpuscularradiation trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field.In December 1958PioneerIII ventured further into space and understandingof the basic structure of inner and outer radiation belts started to evolve. It soonbecame clear that a population of multi-MeV protons, up to 1–2 GeV, dominates theion radiation at equatorial geocentric distances of about 1.1?3RE(RE6370 km is the radius of Earth).2The high-energy electrons exhibit a two-belt structure withaslot regionin between (Fig.1.1). The inner electron belt is partially co-locatedwith the proton belt at equatorial distances of about 1.1?2RE. The outer belt isbeyond about 3REextending to distances of 7?10REwith electron energies fromtens of keV to several MeV. Sometimes the outer belt exhibits two or even threespatially distinct parts. As the proton mass is 931 MeV c?2and the electron mass511 keV c?2, the highest-energy inner belt protons and the outer belt electrons arerelativistic moving at almost the speed of light.Since the early space age, the radiation belts have been investigated using a largenumber of satellites.3The observations now cover more than five solar cycles andhave revealed the extremely complex and highly variable structure of the belts. Based on these observations and theoretical reasoning great number of differentnumerical models of radiation belts have been constructed not only for scientificpurposes but also to meet the needs of spacecraft engineers and space missionplanners. As our focus is on the physical processes, we will not go into the detailsof these models. An interested reader canfind the models with their descriptionsat several web-sites, e.g., the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC)4and the Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS)5It is evident that theobservations during theVan Allen Probesera—many of which are discussed in thisbook—and the subsequent modeling efforts will lead to important revisions andrefinements of the models.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

629.1 KOS p

Penerbit

Switzerland : Springer Nature., 2022

Deskripsi Fisik

286 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783030821678

Klasifikasi

629.1

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Aerospace Engineering

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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