Posted on 02/20/2021 8:56:06 AM PST by MtnClimber
A strange dent in Earth’s magnetic field doses orbiting craft with high levels of radiation. It's caused everything from periodic glitches to total mission failure.
The European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites measure the strength of Earth’s magnetic field. In this image, cooler colors (blue) mean lower strength than warmer colors (pink). The large dark region is called the South Atlantic Anomaly
Radiation is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless enemy to both humans and electronics alike. And, thanks to a quirk in Earth’s magnetic field, a region called the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) regularly exposes orbiting spacecraft to high levels of dangerous particles.
Over the years, the SAA has been responsible for several spacecraft failures and even dictates when astronauts can and can’t perform spacewalks. As the space around Earth becomes filled with an increasing number of craft, what does the SAA mean for the future of spaceflight?
A magnetic anomaly
Earth’s magnetic field is the result of a self-sustaining process called a geodynamo. As molten iron sloshes around our planet’s outer core, it generates massive electrical currents that, in turn, create and reinforce the magnetic field. Earth’s magnetic field itself extends tens of thousands of miles into space, and the area in which the magnetic field interacts with charged particles is called the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere protects life on Earth by deflecting solar wind and cosmic rays, which would otherwise strip away much of the atmosphere, among other detrimental effects.
But not all incoming particles are deflected. Some instead become trapped in two doughnut-shaped regions called the Van Allen Radiation Belts. The inner of the two Van Allen Belts sits an average of about 400 miles (645 kilometers) above the surface of Earth. But the Van Allen Belts are located symmetrically about Earth’s magnetic axis, which is not perfectly aligned with Earth’s rotational axis. The result: The Belts’ distance from Earth’s surface varies around the globe.
The SAA is the region where the inner Van Allen Belt dips closest to Earth — a mere 120 miles (190 km) above the surface. At that altitude, spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) may periodically pass through the SAA, exposing them (and, in the case of manned missions, their occupants) to large amounts of trapped high-energy particles — i.e., potentially damaging doses of radiation.
Lost craft
Radiation from the SAA has undoubtedly affected spacecraft, sometimes leading to their doom. One notable example is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) X-ray Astronomy Satellite. Also called Hitomi, it was launched into LEO in February 2016 to study high-energy X-rays from extreme processes throughout the universe.
But JAXA lost all contact with the probe on March 26 of that same year. Shortly after, the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center publicly confirmed that it had seen Hitomi break up into at least five pieces. And the largest piece was tumbling, eventually dislodging even more fragments. Hitomi, which had cost upwards of $270 million, was a total loss.
Radiation hardening and single event upset detection and recovery from cosmic rays are some reasons that satellites are so darn expensive.
Guess the Bermuda Triangle has relocated.
Trump’s fault.
Great, another reason why it was a bad week to stop sniffing glue.
I wonder what is happening in South America on the ground in that blue area. Does that low area help or hinder the Amazon Rainforest? Do the people living in those areas have a higher rate of cancer or other ailments than those in other areas?
The South pole is moving toward that ‘anomaly’
The North pole is headed toward Siberia - another reason for the disruption of the so-called Polar Vortex (jet stream) which, in part, drove this last ‘super’ cold spell.
As the poles continue to wander toward the equator, expect more cold weather. Very cold.
IOW, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Same question crossed my mind when I saw that image.
Are people in Argentina and surrounding countries adversely affected?
I just moved to Texas to escape bitter winter cold and blizzards. Thank you so much for fueling my fear that just maybe, winter blizzards are going to become the norm in Texas.
I wonder if has anything to do with UFO sightings?
“IOW, you ain’t seen nothing yet”
SuspiciousObservers.org is reporting on these events daily and are saying the same thing.
UFO sightings are everywhere around the world.
A couple of weeks ago my sister just saw a diamond shaped one doing wild zigging and zagging in the sky over her CT suburb.
Up to that moment she thought UFOs were hallucinations by crazy people.
This is the expected results of the cyclic North South magnetic polar switch that occurs every X thousands of years
(X not sure of the frequency spread)
Its not only Texas that’s being affected by the war on coal
Earth Axis tilts slightly away from sun
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3877075/posts
Earth Enters Unknown as Magnetic North Pole Continues Push Toward Russia, Crosses Greenwich Meridian
Sputniknews.com ^ | 15:08 13.12.2019 (updated 15:42 13.12.2019) | Staff
posted in the Free Republic Aggregate conservative news site
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3800727/posts
Posted on 12/13/2019, 4:22:18 PM by Red Badger
Earlier this year, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Geological Survey (BGS) were forced to update the World Magnetic Model a year ahead of schedule due to the speed with which the magnetic north pole is shifting out of the Canadian Arctic and toward Russia’s Siberia.
Deep solar minimum on the verge of an historic milestone
wattsupwiththat.com ^ | December 12, 2019 | by Paul Dorian
Posted on 12/13/2019, 3:17:04 PM by Red Badger Posted in the Free Republic aggregate news site http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3800719/posts
Solar minimum is a normal part of the 11-year sunspot cycle, but the last one and the current one have been far deeper than most. One of the consequences of a solar minimum is a reduction of solar storms and another is the intensification of cosmic rays. The just ended solar cycle 24 turned out to be one of the weakest in more than a century – continuing a weakening trend that began in the 1980’s – and, if the latest forecasts are correct, the next solar cycle will be the weakest in more than 200 years.
One of the natural impacts of decreasing solar activity is the weakening of the ambient solar wind and its magnetic field which, in turn, allows more and more cosmic rays to penetrate the solar system. Galactic cosmic rays are high-energy particles originating from outside the solar system that can impact the Earth’s atmosphere. Our first line of defense from cosmic rays comes from the sun as its magnetic field and the solar wind combine to create a ‘shield’ that fends off cosmic rays attempting to enter the solar system. The shielding action of the sun is strongest during solar maximum and weakest during solar minimum with the weakening magnetic field and solar wind. The intensity of cosmic rays varies globally by about 15% over a solar cycle because of changes in the strength of the solar wind, which carries a weak magnetic field into the heliosphere, partially shielding Earth from low-energy galactic charged particles.
NEWLY PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC PAPER TEARS GLOBAL WARMING AND THE IPCC TO SHREDS
Electro verse.net ^ | Dec 11, 2019
Posted on 12/17/2019, 4:54:46 PM by 11th_VA
http://www.freerepublic/com/focus/f-news/3801618/posts
A scientific paper entitled “An Overview of Scientific Debate of Global Warming and Climate Change” has recently come out of the University of Karachi, Pakistan. The paper’s author, Prof. Shamshad Akhtar delves into earth’s natural temperature variations of the past 1000 years, and concludes that any modern warming trend has been hijacked by political & environmental agendas, and that the science (tackled below) has been long-ignored and at times deliberately manipulated.
... Pro human induced global warming scientists exaggerate the contribution of carbon dioxide as a major greenhouse gas in absorbing long wave earth’s radiation. The fact is water vapor is the single largest atmospheric greenhouse gas (2% by volume), Carbon dioxide is second (0.0385% by volume).
Water vapor contributes 95% to the greenhouse effect, all other greenhouse gases combined contribute only 5%. Furthermore, the man-made portion of carbon dioxide contributes only 0.117% to the greenhouse effect.
The IPCC does not consider water vapor a greenhouse gas in its reports.
In addition, water vapor absorbs in a much wider band of long wave radiation (4-8 micrometer and 12-70 micrometer bands), whereas Carbon dioxide absorbs in narrow bands (13-16 micrometer) and ozone absorbs in a much smaller narrow band (9-10 micrometer). Thus, water vapor absorbs in a much wider wave length band, it has the single largest greenhouse effect among all the greenhouse gases.
I was watching a series on tv last night and wondered about the veracity of these sightings as well. But these are well trained pilots/crew reporting. Some of them reluctantly so how many don’t get reported? Pilots often don’t like to have attention focused on them for various reasons. Not too many are attention seekers.
Kite
Somehow this is no doubt related to GoreBull Warming (sarc)
We will figure it out but the old rule applies—science cannot advance until the old scientists die.
If it’s such a problem, then why fly over it? After all, there’s not much else down there.
The diamond shaped “kite” did vertical and horizontal sharp turns at high speed, and was brightly lit at night-time—with no wind to speak of—don’t think a kite could have even gotten air-borne that night.
It stayed in sight for more than fifteen minutes.
It also had the characteristic “wobble” of UFOs while all this was going on...
Made me laugh! Thanks.
Consider adding a suitable image next time. Something like this:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/001/295/tribettmug1.jpg
IIRC, it is a station photo taken after being picked up for huffing paint (obviously). But it is the “What is the problem officer?” look on the man’s face that makes the image.
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