A Long-Lived Relativistic Electron Storage Ring Embedded in Earth's Outer Van Allen Belt

摘要

The magnetically confined radiation zones surrounding Earth were the first major discovery of the Space Age in 1958 (1-4). Long-term observations of these energetic particle populations have subsequently shown dramatic, highly dynamic changes of the outer Van Allen belt Previous, rather sparse measurements of the radiation environment suggested that powerful acceleration events for relativistic electrons occur on time scales ranging from minutes (5,6) to many hours (7,8). Thus, there has been direct, as well as circumstantial evidence that an immensely powerful and efficient accelerator operates within the terrestrial magnetosphere just a few thousand kilometers above Earth's surface.