Physical State of Outer Atmosphere and the Origin of Radiation Belts

Abstract

A possible mechanism trapping high energy particles in the radiation belts surrounding the earth is proposed, taking into account the existing hydromagnetic waves in the outer atmosphere. It is shown that there are two regions where the amplitude of hydromagnetic waves and the compressibility of gas bearing magnetic field are large. Since the acceleration mechanism is operative in such regions, particles inside the regions may be raised in their energies, and consequently they produce local inhomogeneities of hot plasmas. These hot plasmas interact with the geomagnetic field and may form a certain kind of magnetic bottles, in which the high energy particles are likely trapped. The inner activated region is expected at the height 1, 000-3, 000km and the outer region is of the order of 20, 000km. Although the origin of high energy particles is possibly of injected solar particles, their concentration at particular regions may be controlled considerably by the hydromagnetic nature in the outer atmosphere.