Atmosphere acts as heat shield for solar storms
Posted: Fri, May 10, 2002, 8:58 AM ET (1258 GMT)
New data from a NASA spacecraft confirm that a region of the Earth's upper atmosphere acts as a heat shield, absorbing energy from solar storms, but in the process generating a cloud of plasma that surrounds the planet. Observations by the Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft show that the upper ionosphere, a region of the atmosphere 300 to 1,000 km above the Earth's surface, absorbs energy from a multimillion-amp electric current generated when energetic particles from solar storms interact with the Earth's magnetosphere. This turns a portion of the gas — a few hundred tons for a typical storm — into a plasma that is distributed around the planet by the magnetosphere. This plasma can disrupt satellites and interfere with GPS signals.
New data from a NASA spacecraft confirm that a region of the Earth's upper atmosphere acts as a heat shield, absorbing energy from solar storms, but in the process generating a cloud of plasma that surrounds the planet. Observations by the Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft show that the upper ionosphere, a region of the atmosphere 300 to 1,000 km above the Earth's surface, absorbs energy from a multimillion-amp electric current generated when energetic particles from solar storms interact with the Earth's magnetosphere. This turns a portion of the gas — a few hundred tons for a typical storm — into a plasma that is distributed around the planet by the magnetosphere. This plasma can disrupt satellites and interfere with GPS signals.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Blue Origin describes plans for increased New Glenn launch rates
Posted: Sat, Oct 17 11:41 AM ET (1541 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, October 18
Exercise helps astronauts’ hearts handle months in space, boosting prospects for Mars
Northwestern Univ. — 5:12 pm ET (2112 GMT) Infostellar Selected for METI’s Global South Future-Oriented Co-Creation Project
Infostellar — 1:12 pm ET (1712 GMT) Meridian Space Successfully Activates its First Communications Payload in Orbit
GlobeNewswire — 1:11 pm ET (1711 GMT) Voyager Awarded $22.4M DoW Contract for Next-Gen Satellite Deployment Systems
Voyager Space — 1:10 pm ET (1710 GMT) Alexander Dahm named new CEO of Rocket Factory Augsburg
Rocket Factory Augsburg — 1:10 pm ET (1710 GMT) |
