Photo of stars which is part of background
Black background
Photo of stars which is part of background
Photo of Earth
Black background

Space Climate Symposium, September 19-22, 2022

Krakow, Poland
Fully on-site meeting

Space Climate 8 Meeting Abstract

Three varying radiation belts in the Earth's magnetosphere detected by STEP-F and SphinX measurements as a sensitive marker of the geomagnetic irregularities

Oleksiy V. Dudnik (Space Research Center of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Radio Astronomy of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine )

Janusz Sylwester,

Mirosław Kowaliński, Piotr Podgórski

Space Research Centre
of Polish Academy of Sciences;

Oleksandr Yakovlev

Institute of Radio
Astronomy of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine


Properties of high-energy charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere constitute a very sensitive markers of solar and geomagnetic irregularities. Numerous and growing number of satellite instruments continue to monitor dynamically changing electron and ion populations at different altitudes in near-Earth space. The response of magnetically trapped plasmas to varying space environment (aka South Atlantic Anomaly - SAA, Van Allen adiation belts) due to different manifestations of solar activity are under investigation. In our present work, we extract raw data time series from STEP-F and SphinX instrument records and perform prompt analysis of magnetically contained particles for a one-month period in 2009 during a time quiet solar activity condition. The STEP-F telescope and the SphinX solar X-ray spectrophotometer were installed aboard the CORONAS-Photon semi-Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit satellite. The STEP-F provided direct measurements of high-energy charged particle properties, while the SphinX observed the soft X-ray spectra of the solar corona. The SphinX also registered in the upper spectral energy channels the bremsstrahlung emission arising as a result of the interaction of high energy particles with the satellite housing. We analyzed 2-second data from STEP-F’s several energy channels recording electrons and protons, and SphinX’s SDet1 and SDet2 channels 5-second data as recorded on May 2009. Presence of the two electron radiation belts known as VanAllen outer and inner belts were confidently confirmed on the D1e channel of STEP-F fluence. In addition, the third permanent layer was discovered both on the ascending and descending portions of the satellite orbits, both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, occurring between ~ 150 degrees and ~ 290 degrees longitude band. This third belt is observed around the drift shell with an average McIlwaine parameter of L≈1.65. The SphinX exhibits in many cases three-belt structure seen by STEP-F although the fine details are different. This indicates for anisotropic character of electrons velocities as the SphinX FOV is Sun-directed and narrow, contrary to STEP-F. We present new particle-induced radiation maps built for selected particle energy channels of STEP-F that demonstrate presence of various zones in the SAA, Van Allen radiation belts, as well as discovered 3rd radiation belt in its lowest energy channel.

Mode of presentation: poster (Need to be confirmed by the SOC)


Return to participants list