Electromagnetic Waves and their Effects in near-Earth Space

在太空时代之初，詹姆斯·范·艾伦有了一个惊人的发现：我们大气层上方的空间充满了高能辐射。那是在1958年，这一发现很快使他成为《时代》杂志的年度风云人物。自那时以来，许多事情都发生了变化，我们的社会已经开始依赖轨道卫星。GPS定位和卫星天气地图等应用程序是我们日常生活的一部分。然而，范·艾伦发现的辐射是一种自然现象，现代卫星经常穿过现在被称为范艾伦辐射带的两个甜甜圈形状的区域。这些区域的辐射来自电子和离子，它们被地球磁场俘获并加速到非常高的能量。这些微粒对经过它们的任何卫星构成严重威胁，主要是因为它们有能力损坏和扰乱机载电子设备。

At the start of the space age, James Van Allen made a startling discovery: the space above our atmosphere is filled with high-energy radiation. That was in 1958, and the discovery soon made him Time Magazine's "Man of the Year". Much has changed since that time, and our society has come to rely on orbiting satellites. Applications such as GPS positioning and satellite weather maps are a part of our daily lives. However, the radiation that Van Allen discovered is a natural phenomenon, and modern satellites often cross through the two doughnut-shaped regions now known as the Van Allen radiation belts. The radiation in these regions comes from electrons and ions which are trapped by the Earth's magnetic field and accelerated to very high energies. These particles pose a serious threat to any satellites passing through them, mostly due to their ability to damage and disrupt on-board electronics.