Time decay of the artificial radiation belt

Satellite 1963 38C was launched into a nearly circular 1100-km orbit having an inclination of 89.91°. A permanent bar magnet achieved alignment to less than about 5° of the local field direction within five days after launch. The detector used in this study is one of a set of five surface barrier solid state detectors that make up an integral electron spectrometer carried aboard the satellite. The spectrometer is oriented to look out normal to the satellite alignment axis. The detector of interest is sensitive to electrons of Ee ≥ 1.2 Mev. A detailed description of the satellite and of the electron spectrometer will appear in a study of outer zone electron intensities (Williams and Smith, to be published).