Van Allen Belts
Two doughnut-shaped belts of high-energy charged particles trapped in the
Earth's magnetic field; they were discovered in 1958 by James Van
Allen based on measurements made by the Explorer
1 satellite. The inner Van Allen Belt lies about 9,400 km (1.5 Earth radii)
above the equator, and contains protons and
electrons from both the solar
wind and the Earth's ionosphere.
The outer belt is about three times further away and contains mainly electrons
from the solar wind.
Related category
• ATMOSPHERIC
PHENOMENA AND STRUCTURES
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