Look Who it Was Random video

Average energy of Van Allen belt electrons

3,266 views · Published 25 October 2014 · 3:47 · Indexed 19 October 2026

Channel: Jarrah White · 2014 · Science & Technology

Watch on YouTube

In a previous video, I did some calculations to determine the dose rates from electrons in the outer Van Allen belt. My calculations considered electrons with energies of 55MeV because my sources indicate that the average energy of the electrons is between 10 to 100 million volts (sic).
http://www.maarble.eu/outreach/index.php/basic-information

Recently certain opponents have attempted to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of my references. About a fortnight ago, I contacted the Scientist in Charge of the MAARBLE (Monitoring, Analyzing and Assessing Radiation Belt Loss and Energization) Project for clarification, he confirmed that the section on their site should indeed read: "10 to 100 million electron volts, on average". 

I have also read that: "In situ measurement of this region of the Earth's space environment presents an extraordinary challenge due to the large fluxes of penetrating radiation. In particular, substantial electron fluxes are typically observed at energies that can exceed 15 MeV in both the inner radiation belt (typically centered near 1.5 RE) and outer radiation belt (typically most intense near 4–5 RE at the Earth’s magnetic equator)"

http://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1162&context=physics_facpub

More from this channel