IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v432y2004i7019d10.1038_nature03116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An extreme distortion of the Van Allen belt arising from the ‘Hallowe'en’ solar storm in 2003

Author

Listed:
  • D. N. Baker

    (University of Colorado)

  • S. G. Kanekal

    (University of Colorado)

  • X. Li

    (University of Colorado)

  • S. P. Monk

    (University of Colorado)

  • J. Goldstein

    (Southwest Research Institute)

  • J. L. Burch

    (Southwest Research Institute)

Abstract

The Earth's radiation belts—also known as the Van Allen belts1—contain high-energy electrons trapped on magnetic field lines2,3. The centre of the outer belt is usually 20,000–25,000 km from Earth. The region between the belts is normally devoid of particles2,3,4, and is accordingly favoured as a location for spacecraft operation because of the benign environment5. Here we report that the outer Van Allen belt was compressed dramatically by a solar storm known as the ‘Hallowe'en storm’ of 2003. From 1 to 10 November, the outer belt had its centre only ∼10,000 km from Earth's equatorial surface, and the plasmasphere was similarly displaced inwards. The region between the belts became the location of high particle radiation intensity. This remarkable deformation of the entire magnetosphere implies surprisingly powerful acceleration and loss processes deep within the magnetosphere.

Suggested Citation

  • D. N. Baker & S. G. Kanekal & X. Li & S. P. Monk & J. Goldstein & J. L. Burch, 2004. "An extreme distortion of the Van Allen belt arising from the ‘Hallowe'en’ solar storm in 2003," Nature, Nature, vol. 432(7019), pages 878-881, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:432:y:2004:i:7019:d:10.1038_nature03116
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03116
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature03116?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:432:y:2004:i:7019:d:10.1038_nature03116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.