Since ages human have been shaping Earth’s setting, but now NASA scientists have found that we can also shape our near-space surroundings with radio communications. Effects of such communications extended beyond our atmosphere that created a bubble surrounding Earth, revealed NASA’s Van Allen Probes. The Van Allen Probes are meant to study electrons and ions in the near-Earth environment.
A certain type of communications, very low frequency (VLF) radio communications were found to network with particles in space, affecting how and where they shifts. Sometimes, these communications creates a hurdle around Earth against natural high energy particle emission in space, displayed the outcome of a study published in the journal Space Science Reviews.
“A number of experiments and observations have figured out that, under the right conditions, radio communications signals in the VLF frequency range can in fact affect the properties of the high-energy radiation environment around the Earth,” said Phil Erickson, Assistant Director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Haystack Observatory, Westford, Massachusetts.
VLF signals sent from ground stations at huge powers to communicate with submarines deep in the ocean. These waves are meant for communications below the surface. But, they also extend out beyond our surrounding, covering Earth in a VLF bubble.
This bubble is witnessed by spacecraft high above Earth’s surface like NASA’s Van Allen Probes. VLF transmissions may act as a way to get rid of excess radiation from the near-Earth atmosphere with additional learning,.
Plans are already in progress to test VLF transmissions in the upper environment to distinguish if they could eliminate excess charged particles that can appear during intense space weather.
