X-Ray Noise From Comets Leads To Space Weather Signal 27
sciencehabit writes "Scientists observing the x-ray sky first noticed noise in their signals that was eventually ascribed to x-rays produced when the solar wind interacts with the tails of comets. Once alerted to this phenomenon, researchers then noticed that similar x-rays are generated when solar wind particles strike neutral atoms just above Earth's magnetosphere, the bubble produced by Earth's magnetic field that surrounds the planet and protects it from harmful solar radiation. The emissions, which are easy to detect with x-ray telescopes, could produce a display of the entire magnetosheath, the part of the magnetosphere that is bombarded by incoming solar particles. And that display could enable scientists to generate, in real-time, global, space-weather images, just as high-flying meteorological satellites provide real-time images of weather on Earth. This would be useful because, when sudden bursts of intense radiation from the sun pierce the magnetosphere's protective bubble, they set off events that can fry the delicate electronic equipment aboard orbiting satellites, interfere with or kill telecommunications signals, and even overload electric power grids on the ground."
Slaps forehead "Of COURSE!" (Score:4, Interesting)
This is one of those "Of course!" moments, where something is obvious after the fact.
Of COURSE the wind of charged particles, containing high-speed electrons, produces X-rays when it encounters enough matter in the vacuum to stop it. One such sudden density increase is just above the magnetopause, where new neutral atoms drift out of the shield into the hard vacuum which is swept clean by the solar wind bombardment - and get hit as the first step of being swept away in turn.
Others:
How do mountains explode? Film of Mount St. Helens going up explained it. (It was taken(by a geologist caught in the eruption and killed by it, who snapped a series of shots and then wrapped his camera in his clothes and backpack.):
- Gas pressure builds under the mountain as it grows.
- Eventually a landslide occurs, with one side of the mountain sliding off.
- This greatly reduces the weight holding down the pressure.
- The gas blasts its way through the remaining layers above it, pulverizing them and throwing the dust up into the stratosphere.
How do you keep dry cells (which have a caustic goo eating away the zinc can) from leaking and eating the flashlight? After years of research one depressed engineer told his wife what his team were working on and getting nowhere, and she asked "Why don't you seal it in a steel can?". (The patent battle when Union Carbide (Eveready) tried to claim it was obvious - when they'd also worked for years trying unsuccessfully to solve the problem - is the major precedent in patent law showing that obvious AFTER the fact doesn't cut it.)
And one of mine:
Some time before the first Voyager flyby I heard the explanation for the Cassini Division in Saturn's rings. (Orbits there are destabilized by their period's 2-1 resonance with the moon Mimas, so the perturbations accumulate and move 'em out or in a bit.) At the time I thought "Why isn't there a gap or a resonance-stabilized thickening at EVERY location where an orbital period would have a rational-number ratio to that of one or another moon? There are LOTS of ratios of small integers, which should have strong effects, so that should make the rings look like a phonograph record."
Turns out it DOES look like a phonograph record, largely because of that phenomenon. But Earth-based telescopes, blurred by the atmosphere, just didn't have the resolution to show it. DARN I wished I'd published that speculation (BEFORE the flyby). B-)
Re:Predicting Weather In Space (Score:3, Interesting)
... solar flares will take out all communications. Except they don't.
I doubt you grasp the ferocity of the Massive solar flare of 1859 [nasa.gov].
The amount of energy needed to start fires and burn down telegraph wires (I remember that from another article) is massive. Inducing several Amperes of current (enough to run the telegraph) in effectively a straight wire is mind-boggling. That would absolutely disrupt the power grid via induced conductor and ground current surges and saturate the ionosphere as it did in 1921, 1960 [wikipedia.org], 1972 and 1989 [nasa.gov]. The main problem as I see it is that an energy flux of that magnitude could also induce huge currents inside computer and radio equipment attached to long coax or network cables, destroying those terribly thin CMOS insulation layers in every chip. Unless you've got beastly all-tube rigs, you're toast. Think of it as a natural, global Mostly Type E3 [wikipedia.org] EMP-class event.
As an aside, I remember reading somewhere that the most violent Flares/CME's tend to occur on the downswing of the solar cycle.
Your choice of frequencies leads me to believe you're a Amateur Radio Operator - 73 de k4det.