Electrons in a Van Allen radiation belt (blue) encounter whistler waves (purple) and are sent raining toward the north pole (red). THEMIS satellites are seen near the radiation belt, while UCLA ...

Two bands of radiation called the Van Allen belts encircle Earth. After a May 2024 solar superstorm, two more showed up between those belts.

Earth grew a pair of extra "radiation belts" after a supercharged solar storm rocked our planet's magnetic field last year, data from a resurrected NASA spacecraft reveal. And one of the invisible ...

This solar storm not only disrupted GPS communications but also created two new temporary radiation belts around Earth. These belts, located between the two permanent Van Allen belts, surprised ...

Caption The twin Van Allen Probes have spent more than six years orbiting through Earth's radiation belts. Orbit changes in early 2019 will ensure that the spacecraft eventually de-orbit and ...

More by James A. Van Allen This article was originally published with the title “ Radiation Belts around the Earth ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 200 No. 3 ( March 1959 ) , p. 39 doi ...

Figure 1: Electron acceleration in the outer Van Allen radiation belt. Although the present results may provide a resolution to the debate over which mechanism is the dominant cause of ...

Van Allen and the discovery of the radiation belts are featured on the cover of Time magazine on May 4, 1959 (right). (NASA SVS) After Explorer 1 launched, though, they noticed that their ...

Van Allen Space Environments Medal. He currently is lead investigator on several NASA space missions including NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes ...

In particular, recent work has focused on wave-particle interactions, solar wind-magnetosphere interactions, and energetic particle dynamics in Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts through analysis of ...