Distribution of trapped radiation in the geomagnetic field

Abstract

The altitude dependence (360 to 2090 km) of the intensity of geomagnetically trapped radiation as measured with Explorer I (satellite l958a) is given for a number of geographic locations. It is found that all intensity data in the vicinity of the magnetic dip equator and over the full range of longitude and of altitude can be represented satisfactorily by a single function of the scalar magnetic field intensity B. The value of B at the lower boundary of the inner zone of trapped radiation is a monotonically increasing function of magnetic dip latitude; such data from all available geographic locations are well represented by a single curve.