Simulation of charged particles in Earth's magnetosphere: an approach to the Van Allen belts

Abstract

Earth's magnetosphere, beyond protecting the ozone layer, is a natural phenomena which allows to study the interaction between charged particles from solar activity and electromagnetic fields. In this paper we studied trajectories of charged particles interacting with a constant dipole magnetic field as first approach of the Earth's magnetosphere using different initial conditions. As a result of this interaction there is a formation of well defined radiation regions by a confinement of charged particles around the lines of the magnetic field. These regions, called Van Allen radiation belts, are described by classical electrodynamics and appear naturally in the numerical modeling done in this work.