Van Allen Probes Reveal New Radiation Belt Around Earth

A new radiation belt and storage ring has been discovered above Earth; It is shown here using actual data as the middle arc of orange and red of the three arcs seen on each side of the Earth. The new belt was observed for the first time by Relativistic Electron-Proton Telescopes (REPT) flying on NASA’s twin Van Allen Probes, which launched on Aug. 30 2012. CREDIT: JHUAPL/LASP