Scientists don't know a lot about the atmosphere on Earth. This layer at the edge of space is called the "ignorosphere" and is used to determine the intensity of space weather events.
A new space mission is in the works that will attempt to shed more light on the processes that take place there, but it will not be ready before the current solar cycle ends.
There are strange things happening in the planet's gaseous coat when the solar wind hits. The head of space weather at the European Space Agency told Space.com that heavy particles collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere to make them stronger.
Space weather experts explain the science of solar storms.
The second-highest layer of Earth's atmosphere, the thermoosphere, is where most of this energy exchange takes place. The thermoosphere swells because of the excess energy. The density of gases in this area increases. Satellites in low Earth orbit are more likely to fall to Earth.
The manager of the European Space Agency's Swarm mission said that it was like running against the wind.
The lowest layer of the thermoosphere at altitudes of 60 miles to 120 miles (100 to 200 km) is where most of these changes occur. The region is sometimes called the ignorosphere due to the lack of data there.
Stromme said it was too high for balloons and too low for satellites.
Space weather forecasters can't improve their predictions of changes in this region because they don't have the measurement. They can't give proper insights to satellite operators who are at risk. When 40 brand-new Starlink satellites were lost due to bad space weather, it was the first time this risk had been experienced by the company.
When we see an event on the sun, we can warn satellite operators to be cautious. It's hard to forecast how much the impact will be and how much the atmospheric drag will increase.
NASA and the European Space Agency have plans for a satellite mission. It would be very difficult to make such a mission work, as it would be very risky to study the exact phenomenon it would be launched to study.
Around 90 miles from Earth's surface, there is too much atmosphere to slow satellites down. It would spiral into the atmosphere and burn if you were flying there.
The two space agencies want the mission to stay in the air for a long time so that it can be exposed to space weather events. Sunspots, which are the source of solar flares and eruptions that affect Earth, vary depending on the sun's 11-year cycle of activity To ensure that such a mission keeps providing insights as the sun moves through this cycle, mission engineers have to very carefully design the spaceship's elliptical path so that it makes only brief dips into the low altitudes of the ignorosphere.
The closest point to Earth should be between 100 and 150 kilometers so that we can measure it. The farthest point from the planet should be hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from the atmosphere.
Luntama said that the on-board propulsion system would compensate for the loss of speed during the flight through the dense low-lying regions.
Luntama said they would like to measure the charged particles from the sun and the atmosphere. The magnetic field of Earth can change during solar storms. Information about how the atmosphere slows down the satellite is needed.
The mission won't make it into the ignorosphere before the solar cycle ends.
Luntama said that they have established a science team that includes scientists from Europe and the U.S. Once we define more precisely the mission objectives and the measurements that we want, the engineering teams can begin to look at how to build such a mission that can do this.
The sun keeps producing more sunspots, solar flares and eruptions than expected, so solar weather experts do what they can to improve their forecasts. After its first-hand experience with space weather, SpaceX joined forces with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide some basic data about the drag Starlink satellites experience.
This information is used to improve the Whole Atmosphere Model, which tries to predict space weather like a model weather on the planet.
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