There’s something very strange happening high above South America and the nearby Atlantic Ocean, and NASA is on the case.
Meet the South Atlantic Anomaly, an alien in the earth’s magnetic field that grows and splits. It’s been there for decades, but over time the anomaly has gradually changed. Although you would never notice that there was something wrong from the ground, for satellites, changes to the Earth’s magnetic field could be a big deal – hence NASA’s interest in the anomaly and its activities.
The connection occurs because the magnetic field blocked charged particles emitted by the sun from reaching Earth. But at the South Atlantic Anomaly, the field is submerged, lowering the protective barrier above that part of the Earth. The lower barrier means more radiation satellites bomb as they fly over this region, triggering accidental shutdowns to prevent possible damage to the hardware, according to a statement from NASA.
Video: South Atlantic Anomaly in the Earth’s magnetic field described in detail
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De International Space Station is one of the many spaceships flying through the anomaly, but it carries extra protection to protect the astronauts who live and work in orbit against radiation. Other spacecraft flying through the anomaly send NASA valuable observations on how the function changes, such as the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON), which launched the agency in part last year to control the weak spot in the field following the retirement of its Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) mission in 2012. Among other changes, those observations showed that the “dent” moves to the west and splits in two.
These observations are valuable because of the complexity of studying the magnetic field, which traces its roots to liquid metal moving inside Earthly core, is then formed by a range of phenomena as it ripples from the center of the planet, according to NASA.
These interactions mean that more data on changes in the magnetic field can lead to a host of valuable results – not only a better understanding of what the anomaly is now doing to approach satellites, but also more nuanced models of what is happening deep inside the Earth, and of course more accurate predictions of how the anomaly will change in the future.
“After the SAA [South Atlantic Anomaly] is moving slowly, it’s undergoing some change in morphology, so it’s also important that we continue to observe it through continuous missions, “said Terry Sabaka, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, in ‘ the statement. ” Because that’s what helps us make models and predictions. “
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