Van Allen Belts

The Earth's Van Allen Belts consists of highly energetic ionized paticles trapped in the Earth's geomagnetic fields. On the sunward side of the Earth, the geomagnetic fields are compressed by the Solar Wind while on the opposite side of the Earth, the geomagnetic fields extend to three Earth Radii. As a result, the geomagnetic field form an elongated cavity, known as the Chapman-Ferraro Cavity, around the Earth. Within this cavity, reside the Van Allen Radiation Belts. These radiation belts are composed of electrons with thousand eV energies, and protons with million eV energies.

The particles in the belts are not directly injected by the Solar Wind. Magetic fields of a magnitude of 0.3 gauss prevent the Solar Wind from directly entering the radiation belts. Most of the particles result from neutron Albedo. Neutron Albedo is the process where Solar Flare particles interact

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