Search This Blog

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Mega space storm would kill satellites for a decade - New Scientist

Mega space storm would kill satellites for a decade - New Scientist: "A MAJOR solar storm would not only damage Earth's infrastructure, it could also leave a legacy of radiation that keeps killing satellites for years.

Radiation could hang around <i>(Image: Robert Postma/First Flight/Getty)</i>

When the sun belches a massive cloud of charged particles at Earth, it can damage our power grids and fry satellites' electronics. But that's not all. New calculations suggest that a solar megastorm could create a persistent radiation problem in low-Earth orbit, disabling satellites for up to a decade after the storm first hit.

It would do this by destroying a natural buffer against radiation - a cloud of charged particles, or plasma, that normally surrounds Earth out to a distance of four times the planet's radius."

No comments:

Post a Comment