"Since the discovery of geomagnetically trapped radiation by Van Allen in 1958, an impressive amount of experimental information on the earth's particle and field environment has nourished research work for scores of scientists and thesis work for their students. This quest has challenged space-age technology to produce better and more sophisticated instruments and has challenged the international scientific community and governments to establish more, and more effective, cooperative programs of research and information exchange. As a result, an orderly picture of the principal physical mechanisms governing the earth's radiation environment is beginning to emerge. The interest in this topic has reached far beyond the domain of geophysics. Indeed, we find trapped radiation elsewhere in the universe: Jupiter's radiation belts, particle trapping in sunspot magnetic fields, cosmic rays confined in interstellar fields and, possibly, ultra-high-energy particles trapped in the magnetic fields of rotating neutron stars. There is abundant technical and scientific literature available on Van Allen radiation; comprehensive reviews are published regularly in journals* or have been collected in book form**, and books have been written on the subject***. The aim of this monograph is to complement the existing literature with a concise discussion of the basic dynamical processes that control the earth's radiation belts. It is mainly intended to help a graduate student or a researcher new to this field to understand the underlying physics and to provide him with guidelines for quantitative, numerical applications of the theory." --Publisher's website.

Since the discovery of geomagnetically trapped radiation by Van Allen in 1958, an impressive amount of experimental information on the earth's particle and field environment has nourished research work for scores of scientists and thesis work for their students. This quest has challenged space-age technology to produce better and more sophisticated instru ments and has challenged the international scientific community and governments to establish more, and more effective, cooperative programs of research and information exchange. As a result, an orderly picture of the principal physical mechanisms governing the earth's radiation environment is beginning to emerge. The interest in this topic has reached far beyond the domain of geo physics. Indeed, we find trapped radiation elsewhere in the universe: Jupiter's radiation belts, particle trapping in sunspot magnetic fields, cosmic rays confined in interstellar fields and, possibly, ultra-high-energy particles trapped in the magnetic fields of rotating neutron stars. There is abundant technical and scientific literature available on Van Allen radiation; comprehensive reviews are published regularly in journals* or have been collected in book form**, and books have been written on the subject***. The aim of this monograph is to complement the existing literature with a concise discussion of the basic dynamical processes that control the earth's radiation belts. It is mainly intended to help a graduate student or a researcher new to this field to understand the underlying physics and to provide him with guidelines for quantita tive, numerical applications of the theory.

Trapping, pseudo-trapping, and nontrapping regions within an observed magnetospheric configuration are described. Time averages proton and electron distributions and available data concerning the alpha particle distribution within the trapping and pseudo-trapping regions are presented. A review of the observational evidence leading to the identification of major sources, losses, and transport of magnetospherically trapped particles is given. Conclusions are summarized and additional suggestions offered in these areas for inner and outer zone protons and electrons. One general result of this review is that much is now known of source, loss, and transport processes, although specific experiments and calculations must still be done. It is shown that the inclusion of pitch angle diffusion processes within the magnetosphere significantly alters the concept of a stable trapping and allows a consistent quiescent description of outer zone electrons to be formulated from energies of a few tens of kilovolts to several Mev.

Radiation Dosimetry, Second Edition, VOLUME III: Sources, Fields, Measurements, and Applications covers the significant aspects of radiation dosimetry. The book discusses dosimetry relating to x rays and teleisotope gamma rays, discrete and distributed alpha-, beta-, and gamma-ray sources, electron beams, and heavy charged particle beams. The text also describes dosimetry relating to reactors, neutron and mixed n-gamma fields, neutrons from accelerators and radioactive sources, initial and residual ionizing radiation from nuclear weapons, natural and man-made background radiation, radiation in space, ultra-high energy radiation, and uncommon types of particles. Dosimetry relating to health physics, diobiology, radiotherapy, implant and intracavitary therapy, ""transition-zones"" (especially at bone-tissue interfaces), and radiation processing is also considered. Physicists, biophysicists, and people involved in radiological science will find the book invaluable.