{"id":5527,"date":"2016-10-01T11:45:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-01T16:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=5527"},"modified":"2016-10-01T11:45:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T16:45:43","slug":"south-atlantic-anomaly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/10\/01\/south-atlantic-anomaly\/","title":{"rendered":"South Atlantic Anomaly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve not heard of this phenomenon, but <em><strong>Spaceweather.com<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/spaceweather.com\/archive.php?view=1&amp;day=01&amp;month=10&amp;year=2016\" target=\"_blank\">supplies information<\/a>, both current and what they plan to research:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">Researchers have long known that one of the van Allen Radiation Belts dips down toward Earth over South America, creating a zone of high radiation called &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/South_Atlantic_Anomaly\">The South Atlantic Anomaly<\/a>&#8221; (SAA). Since its discovery in 1958, the SAA has been shape-shifting, growing larger and intensifying.\u00a0 A map published just last week in the American Geophysical Union&#8217;s journal <em>Space Weather Quarterly<\/em> outlines the anomaly with new precision:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceweather.com\/images2016\/30sep16\/saa_strip.jpg?resize=512%2C288\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When a spacecraft in low-Earth orbit passes through the anomaly, &#8220;the radiation causes faults in spacecraft electronics and can induce false instrument readings,&#8221; explains Bob Schaefer of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, lead author of <a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/2016SW001371\/abstract\">the paper<\/a> reporting the results. &#8220;We actually used these spurious signals to map out the radiation environment at an altitude of 850 km.&#8221; &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>According to orthodox thinking, the SAA reaches down from space to within about 200 km of Earth&#8217;s surface.\u00a0Below that altitude, its effects should be mitigated by the shielding of Earth&#8217;s atmosphere and geomagnetic field. To test this idea, Spaceweather.com and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/earthtoskycalculus\">Earth to Sky Calculus<\/a> have undertaken a program to map the SAA <em>from below<\/em> using weather balloons equipped with radiation sensors.\u00a0 Next week we will share the results of our first flight from a launch site in Chile.\u00a0 Stay tuned!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For those wondering about a correlation with Earth&#8217;s gravitational anomalies, here&#8217;s a recent map from the <em><strong>European Space Agency:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_5528\" style=\"width: 796px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5528\" class=\"wp-image-5528 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?resize=786%2C427&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"goce_gravity_field_786map\" width=\"786\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?w=786&amp;ssl=1 786w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?resize=300%2C163&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?resize=768%2C417&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?resize=250%2C136&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/goce_gravity_field_786map.jpg?resize=150%2C81&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 786px) 100vw, 786px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5528\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ESA Gravitational Map (from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/67435\/earths-gravity-seen-in-hd\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>UniverseToday<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n<p>Doesn&#8217;t look strong from this visual inspection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve not heard of this phenomenon, but Spaceweather.com supplies information, both current and what they plan to research: Researchers have long known that one of the van Allen Radiation Belts dips down toward Earth over South America, creating a zone of high radiation called &#8220;The South Atlantic Anomaly&#8221; (SAA). Since \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/10\/01\/south-atlantic-anomaly\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5529,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5527\/revisions\/5529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}