Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. Observations were made by scientists from institutions including LASP NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Scientists observed the third belt for four weeks before a powerful interplanetary shock wave from the sun annihilated it. When we turned REPT on just two days after launch, a powerful electron acceleration event was already in progress, and we clearly saw the new belt and new slot between it and the outer belt.' 'Previous observations of the outer radiation belt only resolved it as a single blurry element. 'This is the first time we have had such high-resolution instruments look at time, space and energy together in the outer belt,' said Daniel Baker, lead author of the study and REPT instrument lead at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The new high-resolution observations by the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) instrument, part of the Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite (ECT) aboard the Van Allen Probes, revealed there can be three distinct, long-lasting belt structures with the emergence of a second empty slot region, or space, in between. The findings, published February 28 in the journal Science, are the result of data gathered by the first dual-spacecraft mission to fly through our planet's radiation belts. This discovery shows the dynamic and variable nature of the radiation belts and improves our understanding of how they respond to solar activity. 'The fantastic new capabilities and advances in technology in the Van Allen Probes have allowed scientists to see in unprecedented detail how the radiation belts are populated with charged particles and will provide insight on what causes them to change, and how these processes affect the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere,' said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. When this occurs, they can pose dangers to communications and GPS satellites, as well as humans in space. The Van Allen belts are affected by solar storms and space weather and can swell dramatically. The belts, named for their discoverer, James Van Allen, are critical regions for modern society, which is dependent on many space-based technologies. 30, quickly revealed to scientists the existence of this new, transient, third radiation belt. Particle detection instruments aboard the twin Van Allen Probes, launched Aug. Previous observations of Earth's Van Allen belts have long documented two distinct regions of trapped radiation surrounding our planet. 28, 2013 ? NASA's Van Allen Probes mission has discovered a previously unknown third radiation belt around Earth, revealing the existence of unexpected structures and processes within these hazardous regions of space.

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