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The Question
(Submitted October 04, 1996)
I would like to know more about the South Atlantic Anomaly. What
are its boundaries?
The Answer
The boundaries of the SAA vary with altitude above the Earth.
At an altitude of 500 km, the SAA ranges between -90 and +40 in
geographic longitude and -50 to 0 in geographic latitude. In this
region, the extent of the SAA increases with increasing altitude.
Below is a map of the SAA at an altitude of ~ 560 km. The map
was produced ROSAT by monitoring the presence of charged particles.
The dark red area shows the extent of the SAA. The green to yellow to
orange areas show Earth's particle belts.
Questions on this topic are no longer responded to by the "Ask a
High-Energy Astronomer" service. See http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html
for help on other astronomy Q&A services.
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