GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Van Allen belts are most intense over the Equator and are effectively absent above the poles. No real gap exists between the two zones; they actually merge gradually, with the flux of charged particles showing two regions of maximum density.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Van Allen Radiation Belts are one part of Earth’s dynamic magnetic environment, known as the magnetosphere. During periods of intense space weather, the density and energy of radiation belt particles can increase and pose a danger to astronauts, spacecraft, and even technologies on the ground.

Detailed explanation-3: -The innermost Van Allen belt sits somewhere between 400 to 6, 000 miles above the surface of our planet. Even if the innermost belt is at its closest, the ISS (and the space shuttle in its day) are more than 100 miles away from the Van Allen Belts.

Detailed explanation-4: -A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet’s magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others may be temporarily created.