2024-09-11 13:37:31
Chinese researchers have used a super radar to discover potentially dangerous plasma bubbles. These can significantly disrupt communication links.
Satellites are indispensable today. Among other things, they help us communicate with each other over thousands of kilometers, predict the weather, and use navigation systems to get from A to B. Therefore, if satellites fail, the consequences can be devastating.
For example, in 2002 there was a fatal incident. Three US soldiers died after they had headed for the wrong target in enemy territory. A warning call sent by radio from the control center never arrived. A decade later, researchers found the reason: plasma bubbles.
Plasma bubbles are a weather phenomenon in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, particularly in the ionosphere. They form after sunset when instabilities arise due to temperature differences. These lead to the formation of areas with low electron density that rise as bubbles. These bubbles can disrupt the propagation of radio waves and thus cause communication problems. Since they often form near the equator, they are also called equatorial plasma bubbles.
Now Chinese researchers have discovered such bubbles above the earth using the super radar Larid (Low Latitude Long Range Ionospheric Radar), which was specially developed to research and detect plasma bubbles. This is reported by the “South China Morning Post” citing a recent study. These are located above the pyramids of Giza in Egypt and above the Midway Islands, an island group in the Pacific.
Apparently, the plasma bubbles were formed as a result of a geomagnetic storm that occurred between November 4 and 6, 2023. As researchers from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing explain in the study, the bubbles formed almost simultaneously with the storm.
Coincidentally, this event coincided with a test to increase the radar’s range. At first, Lirad, which is based on the Chinese island province, could only cover a range of up to 3,000 kilometers to the left and right along the equator. It has now been increased to 9,600 kilometers, which made it possible to detect the plasma bubbles.
Since the bubbles, which typically reach diameters of around 100 kilometers and can severely affect or interrupt radio and satellite connections, the detection and observation of the plasma bubbles is important. The researchers from China had even proposed setting up three to four more Larid stations worldwide.
This would make it possible to detect and monitor the bubbles worldwide and take measures for affected regions, such as diverting GPS-based shipping or air traffic.