For many years, NASA watched a strange anomaly in the Earth’s magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity In the sky over the planet, which continues between South America and Southwest Africa.
This wide, developing phenomenon called South Atlantic anomalyFor many years he has been intrigued and worried about scientists, or perhaps no more than NASA researchers.
The space agency satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength in the anomaly and resulting in the resulting sunscreen.
South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) – equivalent to NASA In the “Denta” in the magnetic field of the Earth or in a peculiar “pit space”-it is simply not affected by life on Earth, but the same cannot be said for an orbital spacecraft (including an international space station) that passes directly through an anomaly as they originate around the planet at low orbit height.
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During these meetings, decreased magnetic field strength inside anomaly means technological systems in satellites that can be transient and malfunction if shocked by high energy protons from the sun’s rays.
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These random strokes can usually cause only low levels, but they risk significant loss of data or even constant violation of the main components-mourning satellite operators normally close spacecraft systems in front of the spacecraft to enter the anomaly area.
Smoking these dangers in space is one of the reasons why NASA monitors SAA; Another thing is that the mystery of the anomaly is a great opportunity to explore a complex and difficult -to -understand phenomenon, and the broad NASA resources and research groups are unique to investigate the event.
“The magnetic field is actually a superposition of fields from many current sources,” explained Terry Sabaka from Goddard Space Flight in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2020.
The main source is considered a Spinning Inside the external core of the earth, thousands of kilometers below the ground. The movement of that mass creates electric currents that create the Earth’s magnetic field, but not necessarily the same, it looks.
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A huge tank of dense rock, called Africa’s highly low shear speed provinceIt is estimated that there are approximately 2,900 kilometers (1800 miles) below the African continent, believed to be disrupted by an outdoor generation, causing a dramatic weakening effect – helped by the planet’s magnetic axis.
“SAA observed can also be interpreted as weakening the consequence of the Dipole Field Dominance in the region,” Said NASA Goddard Geophysicist and mathematician Weyia Kuang.
“Specifically, a local field with reverse polarity grows heavily in the SAA region, making the outdoor intensity very weak, weaker than the surrounding regions.”
010 NASA South Atlantic Anomaly 2
Satellite data indicate that SAA is different. (Division of geomagnetism, dTU space)
Although many scientists still do not fully understand the anomaly and its effects, new insights are constantly showing this strange phenomenon.
For example, one study led by NASA Heliophysicist Ashley Greeley 2016
Still, it is not only moving. Similar appeared to be divided into two separate cellsEveryone represents a separate minimum magnetic intensity center in a larger anomaly.
What it means for the future of the SAA remains unknown, but in any case there is evidence that the anomaly is not a new appearance.
2020 In July The published study states From 11 million years ago;
If so, it may mean that the South Atlantic anomaly is not a trigger or precursor The magnetic field of the entire planet turns overWhat really happens, if not for hundreds of thousands of years at once.
In the latest 2024. The published study found that the SAA also affects the aurors seen on Earth.
Obviously, huge questions remain, but so much happens with this huge magnetic strange, it is worth knowing that the world’s most powerful space agency watches it as closely as it is.
“Although SAA is moving slowly, it is experiencing some changes in morphology, so it is also important that we observe it by continuing missions,” Sabaka said.
“Because that’s what helps us create patterns and predictions.”
The previous version of this article was published in 2020. August