NON-LINEAR SYMMETRIC INFLATION OF A MAGNETIC DIPOLE

A self consistent, time independent, ring current of a particular radiation belt under the influence of the combined field of the Earth's dipole field and the field due to the currents of the particle motions is constructed. The method of solution consists of successive iterations of the magnetic field of the currents due to the particle motions until convergence is obtained. Our results are in excellent agreement with the investigations of Baker and Hurley and Olbert, Siscoe and Vasyliunas, which predict exactly the magnitude of the disturbance near the Earth's surface corresponding to a given kinetic and magnetic energy of the radiation belt. Solutions for several sets of data have been obtained enabling us to infer the importance of the effects of the non-linearity of our model. © 1969.