Abstract
FROM the measurements registered by Explorer VI in the outer Van Allen radiation belt, C. Y. Fan, P. Mayer and J. A. Simpson1 succeeded in determining the number of particles which, in their longitudinal motion between two magnetic mirrors, cross the equator with a given pitch angle. In the polar diagram (number of particles versus equatorial pitch angle, χe) obtained by those authors a maximum exists for the equatorial pitch χe = 35°. This maximum has a sort of dynamical stability, because it is restored after a magnetic storm. In fact the authors observed a perturbation of the magnetic field, which shifted the maximum from 35° to 48°, but the value χe = 35° was resumed in spite of the fact that the number of electrons with a given velocity v was changed by a factor about 3.8.
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References
Fan, C. Y., Mayer, P., and Simpson, J. A., Space Research, 2 (Amsterdam, 1961).
Alfvén, H., Cosmical Electrodynamics (Oxford). Calamai, G., Il Nuovo Cimento, X, 26, 1090 (1962).
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CALAMAI, G. Equatorial Angle Distribution between the Electrons captured in the Outer Van Allen Radiation Belt. Nature 207, 1179–1180 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/2071179a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2071179a0
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