Anthropogenic Space Weather Is Real! New Paper Shows How Human Activity Shapes The Space Around Earth

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This new study entitled “Anthropogenic Space Weather” outlines how human activity shapes the space around our planet.

For example, human radio transmissions form a bubble in space protecting us from “killer electrons.” Other anthropogenic effects on space weather include artificial radiation belts created by nuclear tests, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere, and cavities in Earth’s magnetotail formed by chemical release experiments.

Space weather events linked to human activity, anthropogenic space weather, anthropogenic space weather pdf, Human Radio Transmissions Create Barrier to "Killer Electrons",
anthropogenic space weather. Space weather events linked to human activity

Co-author of Anthropogenic Space Weather Phil Erickson explains: “As Van Allen discovered in the 1950s and 1960s, there are two radiation belts surrounding Earth with a ‘slot’ between them. Our research is focused on the the outer radiation belt, which contains electrons with energies of a million or more electron-volts. These ‘killer electrons’ have the potential to damage spacecraft, even causing permanent failures.

impact of space weather
impact of space weather. via Hubpages

During strong geomagnetic storms, the outer radiation belt expands, causing the killer electrons to approach Earth. But NASA’s Van Allen Probes, a pair of spacecraft sent to explore the radiation belts, found that something was stopping the particles from getting too close.

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Human Radio Transmissions Create Barrier to “Killer Electrons” via EOS

The penetration of the outer belt stopped right at the same place as the edge of VLF strong transmissions from humans on the ground. These VLF transmissions penetrate seawater, so we use them to communicate with submarines. They also propagate upward along Earth’s magnetic field lines, forming a ‘bubble’ of VLF waves that reaches out to about 2.8 Earth-radii–the same spot where the ultra-relativistic electrons seem to stop.

VLF radio waves clear the area of killer electrons “via a wave-particle gyro-resonance. Essentially, they are just the right frequency to scatter the particles into our atmosphere where their energy is safely absorbed. Because powerful VLF transmitters have been operating since before the dawn of the Space Age, it is possible that we have never observed the radiation belts in their pristine, unperturbed state.”

Space weather events linked to human activity, anthropogenic space weather, anthropogenic space weather pdf, Human Radio Transmissions Create Barrier to "Killer Electrons",
NASA’s Van Allen Probes Find Human-Made Bubble Shrouding Earth. via Youtube

Other anthropogenic effects on space weather include artificial radiation belts created by nuclear tests, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere, and cavities in Earth’s magnetotail formed by chemical release experiments.

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