Growing breach in Earth’s magnetic field could impact satellites and spacecraft

This evolving weak point in the magnetic field, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, is being monitored by NASA, but the space agency has said it will not affect us here on Earth.

In a plethora of research areas, scientists at NASA are monitoring the anomaly to prepare for these challenges, as well as how it might affect humans in space.

Earth scientists at NASA are also monitoring the anomaly to see how these localized changes in magnetic field strength might affect our atmosphere.

What harm can the anomaly cause?

If satellites passing through this weak area of ​​the magnetic field are hit by live particles, they can short circuit, glitch, or even suffer permanent damage. Thus, satellite operators regularly shut down satellite components as they pass through the anomaly so as not to risk losing key instruments or the entire satellite.

The International Space Station is also going through the anomaly. While astronauts are safe inside the station, instruments outside the station that collect data can experience problems.

In fact, the anomaly has been known to reset the power boards of the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation, or GEDI, mission installed outside the station, as often as once a month.

Although this does not cause any material Too bad, that results in the loss of a few hours of data each month, according to Bryan Blair, deputy principal researcher and mission instrument specialist, and lidar instrument scientist at Goddard.

What are the causes?

Earth’s magnetic field is produced by its molten, iron-rich core, which is in a state of constant motion 1,800 miles below the surface. These movements act like a generator, known as geodynamo, and the electric currents created by the movements produce the magnetic field, according to NASA.

Earth’s north and south poles also have magnetic field lines extending from them, but they are not perfectly aligned or stable.

The movements of the outer core of the planet are variable, causing fluctuations in the magnetic field, and the magnetic poles tilt and migrate. Together, these factors helped create the South Atlantic anomaly.

“The magnetic field is actually a superposition of fields from many current sources,” Terry Sabaka, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Said in a statement.

A weak area of ​​the magnetic field is more sensitive to close encounters with the solar wind, as well as to coronal mass ejections, which are massive clouds of heated plasma and radiation expelled by the sun.

Van Allen’s radiation belts, which surround the Earth, are filled with charged particles and plasma. These donut-shaped belts can usually trap and hold particles and radiation in place so that they essentially bounce off the Earth’s magnetic field.

Belts are part of the Earth’s magnetosphere, or the region of space where the Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind.

The closest of the two belts is 400 miles from the Earth’s surface – a good distance to shield the Earth and its satellites from radiation. It is more stable than the outer belt, which fluctuates and lies between 8,400 and 36,000 miles above the Earth’s surface.

But there is a flip side to Van Allen’s belts: more intense space weather generated by the sun, which are rare occurrences, can in fact energize the belts, distort the magnetic field and allow radiation and charged particles into our atmosphere.

Scientists are also studying particle radiation in the area where the anomaly is located using data collected by NASA’s Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) mission.

The mission operated between 1992 and 2012, and its data revealed that the anomaly is drifting northwest, meaning its location shifts as the geomagnetic field evolves.

“These particles are intimately associated with the magnetic field, which guides their movements,” Shri Kanekal, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Heliospheric Physics Laboratory, said in a statement. “Therefore, any knowledge of particles also gives you information about the geomagnetic field.”

Prepare for the future

Data from SAMPEX has been used to design satellites that are less likely to fail if they encounter a problem passing through the anomaly. The European Space Agency’s Swarm mission, launched in 2013, observes the Earth’s magnetic field.

Then scientists on Earth can create models and understand its current state. NASA scientists like Sabaka and Weijia Kuang, who is a geophysicist and mathematician at NASA’s Goddard Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory, combine data from different sources to predict how quickly changes can occur in the magnetic field in the future.

These NASA team members have contributed to the international geomagnetic reference field. This collaborative effort facilitates research on topics as diverse as the Earth’s core and the outer limits of the atmosphere, and models the Earth’s magnetic field and its changes.

“This is similar to how weather forecasts are produced, but we work with much longer timescales,” Andrew Tangborn, mathematician at Goddard’s Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory, said in a statement.

NASA scientists will continue to observe the South Atlantic anomaly with future missions so that they can make models and predictions, as well as better understand the Earth’s core.

And missions like NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter help us understand the flow of the solar wind to Earth.