Structural Variations of Earth’s Inner Radiation Belt with Solar Cycle

Abstract:

The Technical Data Acquisition Equipment (TEDA), which measured high-energy electrons and protons, had been operated on board the DAICH satellite (ALOS: Advanced Land Observing Satellite) in polar earth orbit at about 700 km altitude for 5 years from 2006 through 2011 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In this orbit, high-energy electrons and protons trapped in the earth’s inner radiation belt appear as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region, which is settled by the relation between the rotation axis and the magnetic-dipole axis of the earth. The distributions of high-energy electrons and protons in the SAA region show cross-sectional views of shell-like structures of the earth’s inner radiation belt, and has both temporal variations with the solar cycle and secular variations with time. In addition, measurements of high-energy electrons and protons carried out on board both the International Space Station (ISS) at about 400 km altitude and the Jason-2/-3 satellites at about 1300 km altitude can be also available for this study. In this presentation, studies of structural variations of the earth's inner radioation belt with the solar cycyle obtained by these multi-altitude measuments will be reported.