A pocket of near-Earth space tucked between radiation belts was a safe place for satellites.The safe zone was thought to be virtually radiation-free, a good region in which to deploy satellites so they'd be protected from the potentially debilitating effects of magnetic storms that can slam into Earth at millions of miles per hour within a day of leaving the Sun.But a new study of a string of severe storms last year debunks the notion.Scientists knew some radiation occasionally leaked into the slot, but it was observed to dissipate quickly. The Halloween storms of 2003 bathed the slot with hot gas called plasma that persisted at extremely high levels for two weeks and dangerous levels that lasted more than a month.The normal safe zone suddenly and dramatically became a hot zone.The slot was breached because the intense storms eroded and shrunk Earth's plasmasphere, a protective bubble that usually surrounds the safe zone. The plasmasphere is full of relatively cold plasma, around 10,000 degrees Celsius. With the plasmasphere blown away, the safe zone filled with plasma thousands of times hotter and more energetic. The energetic particles can damage or disable a spacecraft's electrical system.
Thus satellites are really at stake when safe slot turns unsafe.