NASA: ‘NASA Researchers Track Slowly Splitting ‘Dent’ in Earth’s Magnetic Field’ (video)
18 August 2020
13:48
(Foto: achtergrond illustratie NASA artikel)
A small but evolving dent in Earth’s magnetic field can cause big headaches for satellites.
Earth’s magnetic field acts like a protective shield around the planet, repelling and trapping charged particles from the Sun. But over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, an unusually weak spot in the field – called the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA – allows these particles to dip closer to the surface than normal. Particle radiation in this region can knock out onboard computers and interfere with the data collection of satellites that pass through it – a key reason why NASA scientists want to track and study the anomaly.
