How Earth’s radiation belt gets its ‘stripes’

Earth’s spin may be giving the planet’s inner radiation belt zebralike stripes.

Scientists thought interactions between particles from the sun and the belt would cause these types of patterns. But new observations show that the inner belt has organized layers of electrons even when the sun spews relatively few particles in the planet’s direction. Simulations also show that Earth’s rotation can influence the magnetic and electric fields that interact with the electrons in the belt and cause the stripes, scientists report March 19 in Nature.

The result may provide clues about what is happening in the radiation belts of Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.