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Using NASA’s Van Allen Probes, new research reveals that the Van Allen radiation belts contain a nearly impenetrable barrier that prevents the fastest, most energetic electrons from reaching Earth.The Van Allen belts are a collection of charged particles, gathered in place by Earth’s magnetic field. They can wax and wane in response to incoming energy from the sun, sometimes swelling up enough to expose satellites in low-Earth orbit to damaging radiation. The discovery of the drain that acts as a barrier within the belts was made using NASA’s Van Allen Probes, launched in August 2012 to study the region. A...

Giant mirrors positioned to reflect sunlight back into space may be needed to meet climate targets, according to a report from the United Nations. Solar radiation modification (SRM), also known as solar geoengineering, is among the proposals from the UN Environment Programme to use radical technology to avoid a climate emergency. “SRM is the only known approach that could be used to cool the Earth within a few years,” the report, compiled by an expert panel of climate scientists, stated. “Climate model simulations consistently show that SRM could offset some of the effects of increasing greenhouse gases on global and...

Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age 14:31 | 22/ 01/ 2008 ST. PETERSBURG, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - Temperatures on Earth have stabilized in the past decade, and the planet should brace itself for a new Ice Age rather than global warming, a Russian scientist said in an interview with RIA Novosti Tuesday. "Russian and foreign research data confirm that global temperatures in 2007 were practically similar to those in 2006, and, in general, identical to 1998-2006 temperatures, which, basically, means that the Earth passed the peak of global warming in 1998-2005," said Khabibullo Abdusamatov, head...

OverviewWithout the impact of solar radiation, the temperature on the earth would be about the same as the temperature of space, which is about -454 C. The amount of radiation reaching the earth is about 1,368 watts per square meter. This is a vast amount of energy, which would require the simultaneous output of 1.7 billion of our largest power plants to match. About 70 percent of this solar energy is absorbed and 30 percent is reflected. However, the amount of solar energy reaching the earth is not constant, but varies in several independent cycles of different degrees of magnitude,...

A Primer on Space Weather Our Star, the Sun We all know that the Sun is overwhelmingly important to life on Earth, but few of us have been given a good description of our star and its variations. The Sun is an average star, similar to millions of others in the Universe. It is a prodigious energy machine, manufacturing about 3.8 x 1023 kiloWatts (or kiloJoules/sec). In other words, if the total output of the Sun was gathered for one second it would provide the U.S. with enough energy, at its current usage rate, for the next 9,000,000 years....

The severe geomagnetic storm bombarding the Earth on Thursday was expected to disrupt radio, television and cell-phone communications worldwide and could force airlines to reroute passenger flights that normally fly over the North Pole. Power-grid operators will have to make sure their systems do not overload from induced current, and satellites in close Earth orbits will need to have their positions constantly monitored as the atmosphere expands from the additional heat and frictional drag increases. "It's really hitting the Earth's magnetic field pretty hard," Joseph Kunches, lead forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., told FOXNews.com. "It's...

**** GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS **** A geomagnetic storm began on December 14 at 1416 UTC (9:16 A.M. EST). The Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO), operated by the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder Colorado, is allowing SEC to use their latest H-alpha and Helium-I images while the SEC GOES SXI images are unavailable. A solar flare on 13 December at 0240 UTC (12 December, 9:40 P.M. EST) from NOAA Region 930 produced strong radio blackouts (R3) ... R 3 Strong HF Radio: Wide area blackout of HF radio communication, loss of radio contact for about an hour on sunlit...