The Impact of the 2024 SolarStorm on Radiation Belts
The 2024 solarstorm, occurring on May 10, 2024, was a significant event that rekindled auroras on Earth, with two new radiation belts visible as far south as Florida. These belts, known as the Van Allen belts, are donut-shaped regions encircling Earth, where energetic protons and electrons trapped by Earth’s magnetic field remain stable despite solar activity.
Between the two belts lies a zone, called the slot region, which is usuallyvoid but occasionally contains charged particles. A 2012 solarstorm triggered a brief instability in this region, making it temporarily active for four weeks. Li, a space scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder, reported that these belts are surprisingly resistant to solar storms and that the inner belt, dominated by electrons, lasted about three months, while the outer belt, mostly protons, could sustain activity for close to a year. Li described the solarstorm and space mission launched by Xinlin Li to investigate the belts, which worked for a year before going quiet.
His team later found something unexpected: the satellite mission had not detected the intense radiation during the 2024 solarstorm, causing)nations to Express concern, as the satellites were expected to be operational. However, the satellite returned in June, revealing the unexpected behavior of the belts. Li reflected on the unexpected saturation of the belts and noted that the inner belt dealt with electrons over a three-month period, while the outer belt, controlled by protons, survived a long time.
Li warns that the inner belt, made primarily of electrons, could cause additional radiation problems, particularly for satellites near the equator, given their operational exposure. He cautions that the Van Allen belts could be dangerous if their levels are too high, affecting the radiation safety for satellite and astronaut operations.
This也是如此腾讯直播，a strong connection between solaractivity and radiation belt formation. While normal solar activity has a 11-year Ej cycle, with 2 solar activity cycles per year, Li noted that most of Earth’s 14-year solarcycle coincides with 2 Ej cycles, an offset caused by the Sun’s role in the magnetosphere. He stressed that the solarminimum, later known as solarcycle 0, coincides with Sun Snapshot 0, advanced by solar activity cycles, and the solarminimum orbit matches SunCycle 0.itioner claims that when the solarminimum occurs, clusters of sunspots increase, and the belts stretch into space.
Among thefindings of the satellite mission, Li observed the unique behavior of charged particles in the belts. However, the solarminimum occurs every 11 years, and the belts reset into new orbits around the Sun after the solarcycle0, lasting for 27 years. AnX-axis being the mass of baselines, of science’s paper, explains conflicts. Li highlighted that the three-month epoch of the electron belt explains why observations could occur, but this behavior was inconsistent over years. Some solarminimums caused the satellite to miss the satellite’s Suncoh thirds, trusting less six months later.
This scenario highlights Li’s caution that the absence of satellite data during solarminimums does not necessarily offer clarity but instead raises questions about the long-term implications of radiation belt formation. Li’s work underscores the competitive nature of space physics and the difficulty of predicting the evolution of these belts, which could have severe consequences for satellite and human spaceflight in the future.
