WHAT: Space Weather Radar



WHY: Do you use GPS? Airplanes? Cell phones? Electricity? If so, space weather affects the way you work. Solar flare protons damage solar cells, causing computer memory failures. Cosmic drag and galactic cosmic rays rock satellites while plasma bubbles block their signals. Ionosphere currents alter radio waves. Earth currents disrupt electricity grids. Even simple rainfall water vapor has the power to stop both product transportation and tracking. Yet, knowing what’s coming from above and the supply chain can adjust in time below.



HOW: Research on the ground advances with a new chain of space weather instrument stations-magnetometers and magnetic observatories-based in Greenland and Antarctica. Connected to the established international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), the radars combine to offer extensive, continuous coverage of the upper atmosphere from Europe to eastern Asia and in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Then tell-tale electric and magnetic signals show when and where to expect trouble. Supporting the work is a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Their hope: see massive magnetic storms coming and logistics professionals can prepare for communications, power, and transport interruptions while engineers work to stop them.



CAVEATS: Solar storms wax and wane in frequency and intensity-to study them most comprehensively, data collection must be complete by the next solar maximum in 2012.



QUOTE: Dr. Robert Clauer, Associate Director of The Center for Space Science and Engineering Research at Virginia Tech: “As our technology becomes more sophisticated, it also becomes more vulnerable to space weather.”



MORE INFORMATION: The Center for Space Science and Engineering Research at Virginia Tech: http://www.space.vt.edu/