Latest news with #VanAllen
Time of India
6 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
What? There's a Bermuda Triangle in space too and it is expanding day by day
The Bermuda Triangle has been one among the most intriguing mysteries on the earth that remain unsolved till date. This unravelled phenomenon has been centered around the tales of vanishing ships, lost aircraft, and unexplained disappearances. Despite scientific explanations dismissing these as results of natural forces and human error, the lore persists. Interestingly, a similar phenomenon exists above our planet also, not one of vanishing vessels, but of real danger to satellites and astronauts. Called as the 'Bermuda Triangle of space,' the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is a vast region above the Earth stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe where the planet's magnetic field is unusually weak. While spacecraft don't disappear into thin air here, the risk is still high. Satellites that travel through this region experience increased radiation exposure, potentially leading to malfunctions, system failures, and even complete breakdowns. As space research is advancing day by day, understanding this anomaly has become increasingly important. The SAA poses a real hazard to the growing fleet of satellites and manned missions circling our planet. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Most Successful Way of Intraday Trading is "Market Profile" TradeWise Learn More Undo Scientists and engineers are constantly monitoring it, looking for ways to mitigate its effects. What is the South Atlantic Anomaly? The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) exists where the inner Van Allen radiation belt dips closest to Earth. This proximity results in an area of intensified radiation, and makes spacecraft vulnerable to charged particles from the Sun. Being different from the other areas where Earth's magnetic field deflects these particles, the SAA allows them to come dangerously close as little as 200 km from the surface. This increased exposure causes serious disruptions. According to John Tarduno, a geophysics professor at the University of Rochester, "The lower geomagnetic field intensity eventually results in a greater vulnerability of satellites to energetic particles, to the point that spacecraft damage could occur as they traverse the area", as reported by All About Space. Satellites passing through the SAA are often put into safe mode to protect sensitive equipment. The Hubble Space Telescope, for instance, crosses the anomaly about 10 times daily and is unable to collect data during these periods, which makes to nearly 15% of its operational time. What is the reason behind this anomaly? The anomaly's origin lies deep within the Earth. A reversed flux patch under Africa is weakening the magnetic field in this region. 'Under Africa, at the core-mantle boundary... the field is reversed,' Tarduno explained. 'It is this patch that seems to be causing most of the weak field and the SAA.' The anomaly is slowly drifting westward and splitting in two. NASA's missions, such as the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, monitor these changes to better predict and protect future missions. As space technology becomes more advanced and dependent on electronics, the SAA presents an ever-growing risk. Incidents like the $273 million failure of Japan's Hitomi satellite highlight how devastating the consequences can be when a spacecraft encounters this zone unprepared.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A mysterious, 100-year solar cycle may have just restarted — and it could mean decades of dangerous space weather
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The unexpected surge of solar activity during the ongoing solar maximum may be tied to a lesser-known, 100-year-long cycle that is just beginning to ramp up again, a new study suggests. If that's true, the next few decades could see further increases in solar activity that may threaten Earth-orbiting spacecraft and continue to trigger vibrant auroras across the globe. However, other experts are skeptical of the new findings. Solar activity naturally waxes and wanes throughout the solar cycle — a roughly 11-year period in which our home star goes from being mostly calm in a phase called solar minimum to being a chaotic mass that frequently spits out powerful solar storms at solar maximum, and back again. This cycle is also known as the "sunspot cycle" because the number of dark patches on the sun rises and falls due to changes in the sun's magnetic field, which completely flips during solar maximum. However, there are several other cycles that dictate solar activity. One example is the Hale cycle, which governs how individual magnetic bands move across the sun's surface and has recently been shown to influence the progression of the sunspot cycle. Historical records also show that the sun has experienced several long-term fluctuations in solar activity over the past few millennia. These included the Maunder Minimum — a period of greatly reduced solar activity between 1645 and 1715. Another, lesser-known repeating pattern in solar activity is the Centennial Gleissberg Cycle (CGC) — a variation in the intensity of sunspot cycles that rises and falls every 80 to 100 years. The CGC is still poorly understood, but it is likely tied to "subtle sloshing" of the magnetic fields in each of the sun's two hemispheres that slightly alters the Hale cycle, Scott McIntosh, a solar physicist at the newly formed space weather solutions company Lynker Space, who was not involved in the research, told Live Science. Related: 10 supercharged solar storms that blew us away in 2024 In the new study, published March 2 in the journal Space Weather, researchers suggest that the CGC might have just "turned over," or started again. This could also explain why the ongoing solar maximum, which officially began in early 2024, has ended up being much harder to predict than initially expected. The study team came to this conclusion after analyzing changes to the "proton flux," or number of positively charged particles, in Earth's inner radiation belt — the first of two doughnut-shaped bands of charged particles surrounding our planet. Collectively, these bands are known as the Van Allen belts. The inner belt's proton flux decreases when solar activity increases because of interactions with Earth's upper atmosphere, which swells as it soaks up more solar radiation. On the flip side, the proton flux increases as solar activity decreases. The new analysis shows that the flux increased over the past 20 years but has just started decreasing over the past year or so. This suggests that we have "just passed the CGC minimum" and that average solar activity will start to rise again, study lead author Kalvyn Adams, an undergraduate researcher at JILA, a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told Live Science. The proton flux data were collected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites as they passed through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) — a mysterious dent in Earth's magnetic field above South America and the South Atlantic Ocean where our planet's protective shield is the weakest. This was a key reason these trends became apparent, the researchers said. "The SAA is a region where the Earth's magnetic field is weak and allows trapped protons to reach lower altitudes," Adams said. This allows the NOAA spacecraft to "see into" the inner radiation belt without having to fly directly into it, which would be extremely tricky, he added. We may be nearing the end of the maximum phase of the current sunspot cycle, Solar Cycle 25 (SC25). This peak has been very active and has included some extreme space weather events, such as a supercharged geomagnetic storm in May 2024 that triggered some of the most widespread auroras in the past 500 years. However, this flourish of activity was not initially expected. During the previous sunspot cycle, SC24, the sun was surprisingly quiet throughout solar maximum. This led space weather experts from NASA and NOAA to initially forecast that the same would happen during SC25, which they later admitted was a mistake. The new research hints that SC24's lull was caused by the CGC minimum, likely making it the quietest sunspot cycle for around a century. If this is the case, then the unexpected activity of the current solar maximum means the sun is returning to "business as usual," McIntosh said. Previous research had already suggested that the CGC may have played a role in the recent sunspot cycle confusion, including a 2023 study from members of Adam's research group and a 2024 paper that analyzed sunspot patterns with machine learning. However, the most recent findings are the first to suggest that the CGC minimum may be over. The new study also suggests that the CGC may have a greater influence on the sunspot cycle than researchers previously realized, Adams said. As a result, solar cycle forecasters should "definitely" keep a closer eye on this phenomenon when predicting upcoming cycles, he added. If the CGC is turning over, then upcoming sunspot cycles will likely be as active as the current cycle and could eventually get stronger as we approach the CGC maximum, the researchers wrote. "We just passed the CGC minimum, and it will be another 40 to 50 years before the CGC maximum," Adams told Live Science. "As a result, the next CGC maximum will likely occur around Solar Cycle 28." Using "back-of-the-envelope calculations," we can assume that when this happens, solar activity could be around twice as high as it has been during the current maximum, Adams added. However, it is hard to tell for sure, because the CGC's effect on solar activity "can be a little inconsistent," he admitted. Related: 15 dazzling images of the sun If future solar maxima are more active than the ongoing peak, it could spell trouble for satellites, which can be knocked out of orbit as Earth's upper atmosphere swells. Several spacecraft have already fallen foul of this in the past few years. However, the problem could get worse in the coming decades due to the rapid expansion of private satellite "megaconstellations" that may be ill-equipped to deal with radiation spikes. "Most [private] satellites usually take into account a model of the space climate when they are being made," Adams said. But they "are not considering the long-term variations that we are seeing." Increased solar activity could also be a problem for astronauts, who are vulnerable to harmful radiation shooting out of our home star, Adams added. And there will likely be lots more people in space in the coming decades due to upcoming missions to the moon and Mars, as well as an increase in private spaceflight. But not everyone completely agrees with the new findings. McIntosh, who was one of the first researchers to correctly forecast SC25 when he previously worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research at CU Boulder, told Live Science that it is "too early" to make any firm conclusions about the CGC. The main issue is that proton flux has only gone down over the past year, so it could just be a temporary dip caused by the natural variability of the sun, McIntosh said. As a result, the study team probably needs a couple more years of data for their results "to be definitive," he added. There's also no baseline data for comparing CGC cycles, since satellites have only been able to accurately track proton flux over the past 30 to 40 years. RELATED STORIES —X-class solar flares hit a new record in 2024 and could spike further this year — but the sun isn't entirely to blame, experts say —'Like they were demon possessed': Geomagnetic super storms are causing tractors to dance from side to side across US farms —No, you didn't see a solar flare during the total eclipse — but you may have seen something just as special McIntosh also warned that the new study could be overestimating the effects of the CGC on the sunspot cycle, because we still don't know how the two cycles interact. At present, researchers are also struggling to agree on what the CGC is and how we define it, he added. However, while McIntosh does not entirely agree with the new study, he did say it is "intriguing" and "well intentioned," and that the findings could help forecast the next sunspot cycle. While the CGC remains mysterious, it is likely "an intrinsic part of the [sunspot cycle] puzzle," he added.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Earth grew an extra, never-before-seen 'radiation belt' after last year's supercharged solar storm — and it's probably still there
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Earth grew a pair of extra "radiation belts" after a supercharged solar storm rocked our planet's magnetic field last year, data from a resurrected NASA spacecraft reveal. And one of the invisible bands, which is unlike any similar structure seen before, might still be there. In May 2024, Earth was hit with its biggest geomagnetic storm in 21 years after a barrage of solar storms slammed into our planet, disrupting the magnetosphere and painting some of the most widespread aurora displays in the last 500 years. The geomagnetic disturbance also caused GPS-reliant machinery to malfunction. In a new study published Feb. 6 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, researchers analyzed new data collected by NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite and discovered that two temporary radiation belts also emerged around our planet following the storms. The belts were created when charged particles from the solar outbursts became trapped by Earth's magnetic field. These bands are similar to the Van Allen belts — a pair of permanent donut-shaped radiation belts that extend up to 36,000 miles (58,000 kilometers) from Earth's surface and help to shield our planet from solar wind and cosmic rays. The two new bands settled in the space between the inner Van Allen belt and the outer Van Allen belt. Like the permanent structures, the outermost of the two temporary bands contained mostly electrons, whizzing around at near-light speed. However, the innermost temporary belt contained a surprising number of protons, which has never been seen in other temporary radiation belts before, researchers wrote. Related: 10 supercharged solar storms that blew us away in 2024 "When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, 'Wow, this is something really new,'" study lead author Xinlin Li, a space physicist and aerospace engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a NASA statement. The configuration of the proton belt was "really stunning," he added. The CIRBE satellite was offline during May's superstorm, after malfunctioning in mid-April last year. However, on June 15, 2024, the spacecraft suddenly sprang back to life and resumed taking measurements. The breadbox-sized spacecraft, known as a CubeSat, was equipped with a unique device that could detect specific particles within the Van Allen belts. If it had never come back online, the researchers would not have discovered the new proton belt, the team noted. It "wasn't visible in the data from other spacecraft," Li said. "We are very proud that our very small CubeSat made such a discovery." CIRBE continued to take measurements of the new belts until October 2024 when subsequent solar storms caused it to fall out of orbit and burn up in Earth's atmosphere, NASA representatives said in the statement. Temporary radiation belts are nothing new. After major solar storms, charged particles often get temporarily trapped between the Van Allen belts for a few weeks. However, the newest additions to Earth's radiation shield have survived much longer than most, likely due to the intensity of May's solar storm. The outer electron belt disappeared around three months after the storm, following further bombardment from a major solar storm in June and another in August, the researchers wrote. RELATED STORIES —X-class solar flares hit a new record in 2024 and could spike further this year — but the sun isn't entirely to blame, experts say —Sunspots surge to 23-year high as solar maximum continues to intensify far beyond initial expectations —We are fast approaching the sun's 'battle zone' — and it could be even worse than solar maximum, experts warn However, the inner proton belt has proved to be much more resilient and "is likely still there today," NASA representatives wrote. But it is hard to tell for sure without CIRBE. It is currently unclear why the inner belt has held on for so long. It could be because of its unique configuration or be tied to the increased number of solar storms during solar maximum — the most active phase of the sun's roughly 11-year solar cycle, which officially began earlier last year.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Huge solar storm in May 2024 spawned 2 new radiation belts around Earth
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The great solar storm of May 2024, which sparked beautiful auroral displays over much of the world, also created two new radiation belts that were observed with a satellite that came back from the dead. "This is really stunning," Xinlin Li, a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement. "When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, 'Wow, this is something really new'." May 2024 saw a series of powerful storms erupt from our sun, spewing clouds of charged particles into space and culminating in a dramatic display of aurora borealis (northern lights) and aurora australis (southern lights) — the result of the most powerful geomagnetic storm experienced on Earth since March 1989. And NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite had slept through the whole thing. Designed to study Earth's Van Allen radiation belts, CIRBE launched in April 2023 but fell silent in mid-April 2024 as the result of an onboard technical issue. It reawakened in June, and when it did come around, something had changed: Two brand-new radiation belts had appeared! The Van Allen radiation belts contain charged particles held in place by our Earth's magnetic field. There are two permanent belts, but the appearance of a new temporary radiation belt between the two permanent belts following a solar storm is not unusual — such short-lived belts were first detected in 2013. What CIRBE found to be unusual about these two new belts following the May 2024 event was their composition and lifetime. Usually, temporary belts that form following a solar storm are composed of high-energy electrons. One of the new belts found by CIRBE fit this pattern. However the other belt contained a substantial abundance of high-energy protons, too (protons are found also in the permanent radiation belts). Their presence in the new belt is believed to be the product of the intensity of May 2024's solar storms. Temporary radiation belts also usually last for at most four weeks before dissipating, but the new belts found by CIRBE had much longer lifespans: The electron-dominated belt survived for three months after the solar storm, while the proton-dominated belt is believed to still be wrapped around Earth even now. "These are really high-energy electrons and protons that have found their way into Earth's inner magnetic environment," said David Sibeck of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "Some might stay in this place for a very long time." While solar storms can create new radiation belts like this, solar storms can also destroy them. A modestly powerful storm in June 2024 reduced the electron-dominated belt, and another storm in August 2024 almost wiped it out completely. The proton-rich belt remains because it is located in a more stable region where its protons are less vulnerable to being bumped out of orbit. The existence of these temporary belts containing high-energy charged particles — the energy range of the electrons was 1.3 to 5 megaelectronvolts (MeV), and for the protons it was even greater at 6.8 to 20 MeV — could have repercussions for launching spacecraft through the Van Allen belts to reach geostationary orbit (which lies at an altitude of 22,236 miles, or 35,785 kilometers) or beyond. The charged particles contained within the belts can damage electrical components in satellites and spacecraft, while providing an extra radiation hazard for astronauts should they ever head back to the moon or venture on to Mars. To ensure the greatest safety at launch, some future missions, particularly those carrying a crew, may need to modify their launch plans or carry extra shielding following solar storms. However, previous measurements have revealed discrepancies between solar age observations and theoretical models — and now, a team led by Bétrisey has shown that it's probably the sun's own magnetic activity that is at fault. This is surprising, because the consensus had previously been that magnetic activity should have no impact at all. Bétrisey's team looked at 26.5 years' worth of data from two sun-observing programs. One was BISON, the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network, which is a collection of ground-based solar observatories overseen by scientists at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. The other was GOLF, the Global Oscillations at Low Frequency instrument on the joint NASA–ESA SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) mission that was launched in 1995. Our sun undergoes an 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, rising from solar minimum when there are hardly any sunspots visible, to solar maximum when there are sunspots, prominences, coronal mass ejections and flares aplenty. The BISON and GOLF data both showed a 6.5% difference when measuring the sun's age via helioseismology at solar minimum compared to at solar maximum. Furthermore, of the two solar cycles encompassed by the 26.5 years' worth of observations, both BISON and GOLF indicated that the cycle with stronger magnetic activity had a greater impact upon the discrepancy in the age measurement. Because, in the grand scheme of things, the sun is not a very active star, the results from BISON and GOLF suggest that "the impact of magnetic activity could be very significant for more active stars such as those that PLATO will detect," said Bétrisey. Related Stories: — May solar superstorm caused largest 'mass migration' of satellites in history — Solar storm frenzy of May 2024 was strong enough to affect the deep sea — Astrophotographer gets close-up look at monster sunspot that led to May's global auroras As for CIRBE, fate was nothing but ironic. While the effects of the May 2024 solar storm gave the cubesat one last shot at glory, it also spelled its doom. The storm injected a substantial amount of energy into Earth's upper atmosphere, inflating the thermosphere and increasing the atmospheric drag on the satellite. This slowed its orbit, causing it to drop down to increasingly lower altitudes. Eventually, it de-orbited and burned up in October. The discovery of the two new radiation belts was published on Feb. 6 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mysterious Radiation Belts Detected Around Earth After Epic Solar Storm
In May 2024, an epic solar storm rattled Earth so powerfully that its effects were felt even at the bottom of the ocean. In the wake of a torrent of flare activity on the Sun, our planet was buffeted by a powerful blast of solar particles that shook our magnetic field, and bathed our skies with a panoply of shimmering colors as auroras reached far lower latitudes than usual. But its effects were way more far-reaching, as scientists now reveal. In the months following the storm, Earth was girded by two new, temporary radiation belts of high-energy particles, trapped by the planet's magnetic field. While we've seen this phenomenon before – following powerful geomagnetic storms – the solar storm of May 2024 delivered something we had never detected: energetic protons in one of the new belts. "When we compared the data from before and after the storm, I said, 'Wow, this is something really new'," says physicist Xinlin Li of the University of Colorado Boulder. "This is really stunning." Radiation belts are a normal part of the architecture of a planet with a global magnetic field. Stars are constantly leaking particles, borne by a stellar wind; these stream out and, where they encounter planetary magnetic fields, become entrapped, forming vast belts in toroidal formation around the planet in the center. Earth has two permanent radiation belts known as the Van Allen belts, an inner belt closer to the planet, and an outer belt encircling both. This is a good thing; it's sort of like a planetary defense system that protects our planet from direct bombardment by solar particles, and allows us to live here relatively unscathed. Since these belts are maintained and replenished by solar particles, it's unsurprising that an increase in solar particle output, as generated by the flares and coronal mass ejections of a solar storm, would augment what's already there. Even so, when the scientists investigated the effects of the solar storm of May 2024 based on data collected by the NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment CubeSat, what they saw surprised them. There, sandwiched between the two Van Allen radiation belts, they found two new belts – one predominantly comprising electrons, as we've seen previously, and the other containing energetic protons, which has never been seen before. "These are really high-energy electrons and protons that have found their way into Earth's inner magnetic environment," says astronomer David Sibeck of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, who was not involved with the research. "Some might stay in this place for a very long time." In fact, the belts remained intact for much longer than previous temporary radiation belts generated by solar storms: three months, compared to the weeks we'd normally expect. Subsequent solar storms in June and August of 2024 knocked most of the particles out of orbit, significantly diminishing the density of the belts. A small amount, however, still remains up there, hanging out with Earth. What's more, the proton belt may remain intact for over a year. Ongoing measurements will help scientists measure its longevity and decay rate. This is important information to have: particles in Earth orbit can pose a hazard to satellites hanging out up there, so knowing the particle density and the effects solar storms can have thereon can help engineers design mitigation strategies to protect our technology. At the moment, though, the hazard posed by the new radiation belts is unquantified. Future studies will be needed to determine the risks these, and future belts, might pose. The research has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics. The Pandemic Did Not Affect The Moon After All, Scientists Say Scientists Simulated Bennu Crashing to Earth in September 2182. It's Not Pretty. At 1.3 Billion Light-Years Wide, Quipu Is Officially The Biggest Thing in The Universe
