The Brazilian town of Paula Freitas is home to a Geomagnetism Research Laboratory, called Geophysics Research Campus Major Edsel de Freitas Coutinho, whose goal is to study the South Atlantic Geomagnetic Anomaly. The Paula Freitas municipality is close to the center of the largest and most important of Earth's Magnetic Anomalies, which has an influence on all ionosphere, extending from the Andes Cordillera to South Africa, encompassing almost all South America. The town of Paula Freitas lies under the area where the Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth's surface.