The Van Allen Probes' Contribution to the Space Weather System

The Van Allen Probes mission, formerly the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission, was renamed soon after launch to honor the late James Van Allen, who discovered Earth's radiation belts at the beginning of the space age. While most of the science data are telemetered to the ground using a store-and-then-dump schedule, some of the space weather data are broadcast continuously when the Probes are not sending down the science data (approximately 90% of the time). This space weather data set is captured by contributed ground stations around the world (presently Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Czech Republic), automatically sent to the ground facility at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, converted to scientific units, and published online in the form of digital data and plots-all within less than 15 minutes from the time that the data are accumulated onboard the Probes. The real-time Van Allen Probes space weather information is publicly accessible via the Van Allen Probes Gateway web interface.