NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Kristen Perrin
In a report just released by NASA, it appears strong solar storms that impacted Earth last year helped create new high energy belts around the planet. These new areas of high energy can be harmful to astronauts traveling to/from space and impact satellites.
The new belts formed between two others that permanently surround Earth called the Van Allen Belts. Shaped like concentric rings high above Earth’s equator, these permanent belts are composed of a mix of high-energy electrons and protons that are trapped in place by Earth’s magnetic field.
With findings published in the latest edition of the “Journal of Geophysicsl Research: Space Physics”, NASA unveiled how their Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite discovered this phenomena. Understanding this presence of energy is particularly important for protecting spacecraft launching into geostationary orbits, since they travel through the Van Allen Belts several times before reaching their final orbit.
According to NASA, temporary belts have been detected in the aftermath of large solar storms before. But while previous belts have been composed mostly of electrons, the innermost of the two new belts also included energetic protons.
“When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, ‘Wow, this is something really new,’” said the paper’s lead author Xinlin Li, a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. “This is really stunning.”
The new belts also seem to have lasted much longer than previous belts and NASA believes they could still be there today. While previous temporary belts lasted around four weeks, the new belt composed primary of electrons lasted more than three months. The other belt which also includes protons, has lasted much longer than the electron belt because it is in a more stable region and is less prone to the physical processes that can knock the particles out of orbit.
“These are really high-energy electrons and protons that have found their way into Earth’s inner magnetic environment,” said David Sibeck, former mission scientist for NASA’s Van Allen Probes and research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved with the new study. “Some might stay in this place for a very long time.”
In addition to creating belts, strong solar storm events can also knock others out. NASA says large storms can provide the energy to knock particles in these belts out of their orbits and send them spiraling off into space or down to Earth. One such storm at the end of June significantly decreased the size of the new electron belt and another in August nearly erased the remainder of that electron belt, though a small population of high-energy electrons persisted.
The energetic particles that comprise the radiation belts can be hazardous for satellites and astronauts in space and can also have effects on Earth’s ionosphere and upper atmosphere.
Earth’s radiation belts, discovered shortly after the launch of the first U.S. satellite in 1958, were one of the earliest discoveries of the space age. Since that time, while many satellites have made observations as they pass through the belts, much is still not understood about the processes that cause the energization, transport and loss of radiation belt particles.
According to NASA, high energy radiation belt protons, and even higher energy galactic cosmic rays, can alter the electronic state of sensitive electronic devices on satellites, resulting in computer errors or failures. In the case of high-energy electrons, they can cause serious damage to satellite cables and computer chips through a process called deep dielectric charging that culminates in harmful discharges. And when some electrons precipitate into Earth’s upper atmosphere, they can deplete ozone and affect chemical processes in the atmosphere. Scientists are also studying whether this energy can impact weather and climate on Earth.
