2010年,作者在地球外太空发现一个以磁口(cusp)为中心的巨大的动力辐射区域。这个新辐射区域纵深可达10.5Re;在7-8Re高度上,其尺度在纬线和经线方向上可分别达到6Re和>10Re;当人造卫星穿越该区域时,测得的电磁涨落强度与高能带电粒子强度都有数量级的增加。本文对此进行了综述分析,认为这是太空时代最关键和最重大的发现之一,如同1958年Van Allen等发现以地球磁赤道为中心的辐射带一样重要。作者证明新辐射区域为Van Allen外辐射带提供了直接的高能带电粒子源。

The Earth's magnetospheric cusp is a key region for transferring the solar wind energy, mass, and momentum into the Earth's magnetosphere. Recently, a broad and dynamic region of radiation in the geospace is discovered which is centered at the Earth's magnetospheric cusp. The size of the region is up to 10.5Re (Earth radii) in the depth, the size is 6Re in the latitudinal direction and is bigger than 10Re in the longitudinal direction at an altitude of 7-8Re. When spacecraft was crossing through the new region of radiation, it observed orders of magnetude enhancements for both electromagnetic fluctuations and energetic charged particle intensities. When solar wind charged particles access the cusp, the diamagnetic effect further tears wide and deep magneticholes in the magnetosphere and further transfer the solar wind energy into the electromagnetic fluctuation power. The strong electric field fluctuations could efficiently energize the cusp charged particles by cyclotron resonant acceleration, resulting in a broad and dynamic region of radiation centered at the cusp. The ion phase space densities in the region of radiation could be two orders of magnitude higher than that in the outer radiation belt at a given magnetic moment. The region of radiation is observed on both open and closed geomagnetic field lines. It could extend to low-latitude, overlapping with part of the outer radiation belt and providing a direct particle source for the outer radiation belt.