Phys.org March 30, 2022 The classical quasi-linear theory of electron precipitation through moderately fast diffusive interactions with plasma waves predicts that precipitating electron fluxes cannot exceed fluxes of electrons trapped in the radiation belt, setting an apparent upper limit for electron precipitation. From low-altitude satellite observations, an international team of researchers (USA – UCLA, France, Japan) has shown that ~100 keV electron precipitation rates often exceed this apparent upper limit. They demonstrated that such superfast precipitation is caused by nonlinear electron interactions with intense plasma waves, which have not been previously incorporated in radiation belt models. The high occurrence rate of […]
Category Archives: Solar storm
Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth
Phys.org May 24, 2021 The danger of solar storms is not hypothetical. In 2017, a solar storm caused ham radios to turn to static, in 2015 solar storms knocked out global positioning systems in the U.S. Northeast, a particular concern as self-driving cars become a reality. According to a 2017 paper in the journal of the American Geophysical Union predicted blackouts caused by severe space weather could strike as much as 66% of the U.S. population, with economic losses reaching a potential $41.5 billion a day. To shield vulnerable parts of the planet’s infrastructure from the effects of solar storms […]
Solar Storms May Have Hindered SOS During Historic “Red Tent” Expedition
IEEE Spectrum July 20, 2020 On 25 May 1928, the airship “Dirigible Italia” after overflying the North Pole, shipwrecked on the ice pack about 400 km northeast of Svalbard Islands. Survivors were unsuccessful in sending SOS messages using a portable high frequency (HF) radio transmitter. Only after 9 days of repeated radio‐distress transmissions, a Russian radio amateur about 1,900 km away was able to receive the messages. An international team of researchers (Italy, UK) conducted a retrospective analysis of the ionospheric and geomagnetic conditions of that epoch to explain the HF radio communications problems encountered by the survivors. They concluded […]