SAA drift: Experimental results

Abstract

According to the paleomagnetic analysis there are variations of Earth’s magnetic field connected with magnetic moment changing. These variations affect on the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) location. Indeed different observations approved the existence of the SAA westward drift rate (0.1–1.0 deg/year) and northward drift rate (approximately 0.1 deg/year). In this work, we present the analysis of experimental results obtained in Scobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University (SINP MSU) onboard different Earth’s artificial satellites (1972–2003). The fluxes of protons with energy >50 MeV, gamma quanta with energy >500 keV and neutrons with energy 0.1–1.0 MeV in the SAA region have been analyzed. The mentioned above experimental data were obtained onboard the orbital stations Salut-6 (1979), MIR (1991, 1998) and ISS (2003) by the similar experimental equipment. The comparison of the data obtained during these two decades of investigations confirms the fact that the SAA drifts westward. Moreover the analysis of fluxes of electrons with energy about hundreds keV (Cosmos-484 (1972) and Active (Interkosmos-24, 1991) satellites) verified not only the SAA westward drift but northward drift also.