Earth’s ionosphere – Climate- Science.press

Illustration of Earth's ionosphere, showing equatorial plasma bubbles affecting GPS signals, with an inset of electron density variations.

Earth’s ionosphere is a bit like Swiss cheese. It contains holes called “equatorial plasma bubbles.” If any of these bubbles drift across your sky–grip the steering wheel–your GPS might go haywire.

That’s exactly what happened during a geomagnetic storm in March 2023. A new study published in the research journal Space Weather recounts how GPS radio signals began to rapidly flicker, akin to the twinkling of a star, causing positioning errors across a wide swath of the Americas.

GPS satellites transmitting through a bubbly ionosphere.

“This is the most intense event we have analyzed,” says Fabiano Rodrigues, a physics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas and one of the paper’s lead authors. “It produced extremely intense disruptions at low latitudes for more than 10 hours and was even detectable by our mid-latitude sensor in Dallas (UTD in the diagram below), which is unusual.”

Completely surrounding Earth, the ionosphere is a shell of ionized gas created by the sun. Solar ultraviolet radiation ionizes air near the edge of space, creating a dynamic layer of plasma that varies with solar activity, time of day, and latitude. The ionosphere plays a critical role in GPS systems by reflecting or distorting radio waves passing through it.

When the sun sets, the ionosphere becomes unstable. This happens because the sun’s ionizing radiation suddenly disappears. A Rayleigh-Taylor instability takes hold, and bubbles of low-density plasma begin to rise, much like blobs in a lava lamp.

Animation of red blobs moving in a lava lamp, demonstrating the rising and falling motion of fluid.

These structures are especially common near the magnetic equator, where electric and magnetic fields enhance the effect. That’s why they’re called equatorial plasma bubbles.

The March 23-24, 2023, event was remarkable because the bubbles were so widespread. They are normally confined within +/- 20 degrees of the magnetic equator, but during this storm, they spread at least twice as far, affecting population centers at middle latitudes. Peak position errors were wider than urban roadways.

ROTI observations of equatorial plasma bubbles impacting GPS signals on March 24, 2023, showing three time snapshots with varying intensity levels across North America. — **Above:** Red-orange-yellow marks where rapid fluctuations were observed during the March 2023 geomagnetic storm. A plume of yellow extends all the way into Texas.

Savvy readers may wonder if something similar happened during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of May 2024. After all, that was the biggest geomagnetic storm in decades (G5+), far more intense than the March 2023 storm (G4). The answer, surprisingly, seems to be “no.” The same sensors were running during both storms, yet only the lesser storm produced extraordinary scintillation.

“This is an example of how the ionosphere can respond differently to different magnetic storms,” says Rodrigues. “We still have a lot to learn.”

Do It Yourself: Rodrigues’s team monitors equatorial plasma bubbles using a low-cost sensor called ScintPi, based on the Raspberry Pi computer. You can build one yourself. Hobbyists are using them to observe geomagnetic storms and even solar eclipses.

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, is a scientific endeavor aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere. “The ionosphere stretches roughly 50 to 400 miles above Earth’s surface, right at the edge of space. Along with the neutral upper atmosphere, the ionosphere forms the boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere — where we live and breathe — and the vacuum of space.” (NASA)

From Watts Up With That?

NOTE: The HAARP facility was closed some years ago, and now it is operational again. Back then I was happy it was closed because it (mostly) ended the silly conspiracy theories about weather and climate effects, which were baseless. If you want to expound on those theories again here, watch how fast I’ll delete them. Anthony

Alaskans and visitors may be able to see an artificial airglow in the sky created by the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program during a four-day research campaign that starts Saturday.

Scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Cornell University, University of Colorado Denver, University of Florida and Georgia Institute of Technology will conduct a variety of experiments at the UAF-operated research site.

The experiments will focus on the ionosphere, the region of the atmosphere between about 30 and 350 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Scientists will investigate ionosphere mechanisms that cause optical emissions. They’ll also try to understand whether certain plasma waves — gas so hot that electrons get knocked off atoms — amplify other very low frequency waves. And they’ll investigate how satellites can use plasma waves in the ionosphere for collision detection and avoidance.

Each day, the airglow could be visible up to 300 hundred miles from the HAARP facility in Gakona. The site lies about 200 miles northeast of Anchorage and 230 miles southeast of Fairbanks, or about 300 to 350 kilometers.

HAARP creates airglow by exciting electrons in Earth’s ionosphere, similar to how solar energy creates natural aurora, with on and off pulses of high-frequency radio transmissions. HAARP’s Ionospheric Research Instrument, a phased array of 180 high-frequency antennas spread across 33 acres, can radiate 3.6 megawatts into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

The airglow, if visible, will appear as a faint red or possibly green patch. Because of the way the human eye operates, the airglow might be easier to see when looking just to the side.

HAARP will create an airglow at a specific point in the sky. The angle of visibility for anyone wanting to look for it will depend on a person’s distance from HAARP.

HAARP transmission frequencies will vary but will occur between 2.8 and 10 megahertz. Actual transmit days and times are highly variable based on real-time ionospheric and/or geomagnetic conditions.

Additional information about the research campaign will be available on the HAARP website.

The National Science Foundation in 2021 awarded the UAF Geophysical Institute a five-year, $9.3 million grant to establish the Subauroral Geophysical Observatory at HAARP. The observatory explores Earth’s upper atmosphere and geospace environment.

The grant has supported several HAARP research campaigns, including this one. It also helped fund the return to HAARP of the Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science Summer School, which hosted more than 50 researchers in August.

The Air Force originally developed and owned HAARP but transferred the research instruments to UAF in August 2015. UAF operates the site under an agreement with the Air Force.

Pilots flying in the Gulkana area are asked to check with the Federal Aviation Administration for temporary flight restriction details.

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Tag: Earth’s ionosphere

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