Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Satellite Plan Could Knock Out GPS and Radio
Audent writes "Otago University researchers are concerned by U.S. plans to protect satellites from solar storms...
"The approach, which is being considered by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, involves using very low frequency radio waves to flush particles from belts and dump them into the upper atmosphere over either one or several days".
The plan could disrupt GPS signals and high frequency radio over the Pacific for up to a week.
"The disruptions result from a deluge of dumped charged particles temporarily changing the ionosphere from a "mirror" that bounces high frequency radio waves around the planet to a "sponge" that soaks them up.""
"flush particles from belts and dump them "
Isn't the dump supposed to come first?
Where were you when the voynix came?
But what if we reversed the polarity of the particle beam, and then redirected the emissions harmlessly into space - like deflating a balloon. We'd just need 30 minutes to recharge the anti-matter particle deflector grid.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
Not surprisingly, this plan does not appear to be in any stage of implementation. From TFA: "The US Air Force and the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have proposed using very low frequency radio waves to flush particles from radiation 'belts' above Earth and dump them into the upper atmosphere over either one or several days."
My guess is that this is an emergency countermeasure in the event of a nuclear strike. Also from TFA: "If the intense radiation belts resulted from a rogue state detonating a nuclear-tipped missile in the upper atmosphere, using such remediation technology would probably be acceptable to the international community."
I hate to inform everyone, but the sky is not falling. At least not yet (always keep your towels handy in case it does).
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
- This is a proposed system; not one that has been approved or even designed
- The system would protect hundreds of satellites in low earth orbit from solar storms (or high altitude nuclear detonations)
- Depending on how the system is designed and operated, neither of which have been done yet, it COULD have deleterious effects on certain other communication systems
- They say GPS could be affected, but they ignore the fact that GPS is critical to the US itself
- Certainly the international community should consider implications, and nowhere is it stated or shown that the US is ignoring any obligations, considering the fact that the same possible harmful, but temporary, effects would also be felt by the US
Can you find me now? Good.
Whatever, I am sure this is an RIAA funded project to shut down XM radio
I fished around a little and found a link for the actual research paper the article is based on. The paper itself requires a subscription, but here's the abstract:
The atmospheric implications of radiation belt remediation
C. J. Rodger, M. A. Clilverd, Th. Ulich, P. T. Verronen, E. Turunen, N. R. Thomson
Abstract: High altitude nuclear explosions (HANEs) and geomagnetic storms can produce large scale injections of relativistic particles into the inner radiation belts. It is recognised that these large increases in >1 MeV trapped electron fluxes can shorten the operational lifetime of low Earth orbiting satellites, threatening a large, valuable population. Therefore, studies are being undertaken to bring about practical human control of the radiation belts, termed "Radiation Belt Remediation" (RBR). Here we consider the upper atmospheric consequences of an RBR system operating over either 1 or 10 days. The RBR-forced neutral chemistry changes, leading to NOx enhancements and Ox depletions, are significant during the timescale of the precipitation but are generally not long-lasting. The magnitudes, time-scales, and altitudes of these changes are no more significant than those observed during large solar proton events. In contrast, RBR-operation will lead to unusually intense HF blackouts for about the first half of the operation time, producing large scale disruptions to radio communication and navigation systems. While the neutral atmosphere changes are not particularly important, HF disruptions could be an important area for policy makers to consider, particularly for the remediation of natural injections.
I'd never heard of the "radiation belt remediation" procedure that was mentioned in the article, so I dug around some more and located the following paper:
Remediation of radiation belts using electrostatic tether structures
Abstract: Scattering of energetic charged particles by high-voltage electrostatic tether structures may present a technically and economically viable method of rapidly remediating radiation belts caused by both natural processes and manmade events. In this paper, we describe a concept for a system of electrostatic tether structures designed to rapidly remediate an artificial radiation belt caused by a high altitude nuclear detonation. We then investigate the scaling of the system size and power requirements with the tether voltage and other design parameters. These scaling analyses indicate that a conventional single-line tether design cannot provide sufficient performance to achieve a system design that is viable. We then propose innovative multiwire tether geometry and show that this tether design can significantly improve the overall performance of the electrostatic system, enabling the requirements for total power and number of satellite systems to be reduced to levels that are both technically and economically viable.
The slashdot submission and popular press-article (but not the research paper) engages in some fear-mongering about how the US is supposedly planning on deploying RBR, but I haven't found any sources which confirm this to actually be the case. It should probably be mentioned that DARPA funds almost everything under the sun, usually without much expectation of it actually being of practical use. I mean, this is the same DARPA that funded psychic telepathy research and mechanical elephants for the jungles of Vietnam.
Regardless of whether or not it's practical, radiation belt remediation still seems like interesting research. It'd be a shame if fear-mongering about this being a "US plot to disrupt worldwide communications" or something resulted in funding for this research being cut off.
No, but they'll not do it if we pay them one...MILLION...dollars...
This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
The article summary seems a little hysterical to me. It's "US plans" this and "US plans" that, combined with dark words about tampering with our environment. I am not American myself and am rather used to seeing this bias in reporting, especially in New Zealand press.
Solar sun spot activity often disrupts HF radio communications, and amazingly the world does not end. I have been involved in an HF station that provides missionaries and farmers in central Africa with a way to communicate, and you generally live with the fact that no communications are possible much of the time. HF is just plain unreliable. If GPS and HF communications were disrupted with some advance warning, it would be inconvenient for sure, but that's about it. In exchange the world would get a much safer radiation environment for satellites and human-occupied space stations.
So, we have a cost and a benefit. The cost isn't anything that people have had to do without before.
Political manoeuvering and a mildly hysterical press aside, there isn't much of a story here.
---
If the Earth uses its own magnetic field to repel these dangerous particles.. why not generate magnetic fields in some way to protect the satellites in the same manner?
So IMHO it's way too early to worry about the existence, magnitude, or net benefit of the side-effects.
If I understand the summary correctly, the procedure would cause the ionosphere to stop reflecting signals, which would indeed disrupt radio communications which use the ionosphere as a "mirror". But the GPS system relies on signals being sent directly from the satellites to the receivers and doesn't use the mirror effect. Indeed, "bounced" signals would destroy the accuracy of the system as the signal path length would be way, way off.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
1. It would not dump any excess radiation to the Earths surface. It would effect the ionosphere and possibly (speculative since the technology only exists in people's imagination), effecting how radio waves bounce off the ionosphere.
2. Even if it did, this is primarily proposed as a defense against nuclear detonations in the upper atmosphere... I think detonating nuclear weapons in the upper atmosphere is going to cause so many problems with radio that this plan would be the least of people's worries.
You throw the words "radiation" into an article, and throw in "U.S. Military" for good measure, and people start to lose basic common sense. You would have people demanding a global ban on lightbulbs if you told them that the "U.S. Military is widely deploying small radiation emmiting devices to facilitate night time observation."
very likely.
read about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
As if thousands of Geocachers suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced...
The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum. - O'Toole's Corollary
Life Magazine had a photo of the aurora from the nuke blast as well as a photo of folks gathered in Hawaii to watch the fireworks. The expression on their faces is unforgettable after all these years. What is the famous quote from the first Trinity shot?
"...while history is usually explicable it is often irrational" --Roger Spiller