Drift rate of the South Atlantic Anomaly

A portion of the secular change of the geomagnetic field leads to a drift of the trapped belt South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). If this drift is not taken into account, models of the trapped particle population give erroneous predictions of particle fluxes. The dose rates measured on two manned spacecrafts, Skylab (50 degrees inclination x 438 km orbit) and Mir orbital station (51.65 degrees inclination x 400 km orbit), were used to determine the drift rate of the SAA. The longitude and latitude drift rates of the SAA as a whole, between 1973 and 1995, were estimated to be 0.28 +/- 0.03 degrees W per year, and 0.08 +/- 0.03 degrees N per year, respectively. These measurements are consistent with determinations made using the AP8 models for radiation trapped belts and are in excellent agreement with drift rates observed for the geomagnetic field.