New Maps of the South Atlantic Anomaly

Source -Space Weather News for Sept. 30, 2016: http://spaceweather.com

NEW MAPS OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC ANOMALY: Scientists have long known that our planet's inner Van Allen Belt dips down toward Earth over South America, creating a zone of high radiation known as the South Atlantic Anomaly.  A new study, just published in the AGU journal Space Weather Quarterly, reveals that the anomaly is moving and that it varies with seasons in a way that researchers don't fully understand.

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Image Credit: Schaefer, R. K. et al (2016), Observation and modeling of the South Atlantic Anomaly in low Earth orbit using photometric instrument data, Space Weather, 14, 330–342, doi:10.1002/2016SW001371.