Seven Years of Van Allen Probes Observations: Exploring the Sun-Earth Connection
Abstract
The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission of NASA - later renamed the Van Allen Probes mission - came to its operational end in 2019 with the turning off of the RBSP-A spacecraft in October 2019. From the time of launch in 2012, the more than seven years of observations from the RBSP sensors revealed a wealth of fascinating new features in the Earth's radiation environs driven by solar and solar wind forcing events. In this presentation we examine the long run of energetic electron and proton data acquired by the dual RBSP sensor systems and we relate these results to the well-observed features on the Sun that caused the near-Earth responses. In this way, we demonstrate the immense progress that has resulted in our understanding of the "Sun-Earth Connection" as a result of long- term synoptic observations. The measurements from the RBSP scientific sensors - a key part of NASA's Living With a Star Program - reveal the immense benefits that would accrue from future continual monitoring with an operational version of the Van Allen Probes Mission. We place the RBSP measurements into the 20-year record of observations of the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Explorer (SAMPEX) mission to extend the particle climate record.
- Publication:
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43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021cosp...43E.921B