Trapped Positrons and Electrons in the Inner Radiation Belt According to Data of the PAMELA Experiment

Measurements of secondary-electron and secondary-positron fluxes below the geomagnetic cutoff in near-Earth space were performed by means of the PAMELA magnetic spectrometer installed on board the Resurs-DK1 satellite launched on June 15, 2006, in an elliptical orbit of inclination 70° and altitude 350 to 600 km. This spectrometer permits measuring the fluxes of electrons and positrons over a wide energy range, as well as determining their spatial distributions to a precision of about 2°. A calculation of particle trajectories in the geomagnetic field makes it possible to separate electrons and positrons originating from cosmic-ray interactions in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The spatial distributions of quasitrapped, trapped, and short-lived albedo positrons and electrons of energy above 70 MeV in the radiation belt were analyzed. The ratio of the electron-to-positron fluxes and the energy spectra of the electrons and positrons in question are indicative of different productionmechanisms for stably trapped and quasitrapped secondary particles.