
NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot Man-Made Barrier Shrouding Earth - colanderman
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasas-van-allen-probes-spot-man-made-barrier-shrouding-earth
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24gttghh
>With further study, VLF transmissions may serve as a way to remove excess
radiation from the near-Earth environment. Plans are already underway to test
VLF transmissions in the upper atmosphere to see if they could remove excess
charged particles — which can appear during periods of intense space weather,
such as when the sun erupts with giant clouds of particles and energy.

The ability to deflect solar storms would indeed be quite helpful!

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westbywest
I read that particles in the radiation belts have been observed with large
concentrations in the in keV range, peaking into MeV range. Impacting
particles from the sun can be orders of magnitude higher. [https://www-
spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wenpart1.html](https://www-
spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wenpart1.html)

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craftyguy
I thought this looked familiar..

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14366819](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14366819)

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stretchwithme
I wonder if this phenomenon could be used on Mars to make it safer to
colonize. Or on ships going there.

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roryisok
was just thinking this. it's one of the bigger problems facing any potential
mars colony.

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cocoablazing
Ironic that this system was built and is used for communicating with systems
capable of creating radiation belts.

[https://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/verdin.htm](https://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/verdin.htm)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_radiation...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_radiation_belts)

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codefined
> "remove excess radiation from the near-Earth environment"

I feel like I'm hideously misunderstanding this, but could this be used to
help slow down global warming?

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dwyerm
Only in the most indirect way.

By clearing out the Van Allen belts, I suppose you could reduce the need for
radiation shielding of satellites and spacecraft that need to operate in them
and cross them. Less shielding would equate to lower weight spacecraft which
require less energy to be flung into space.

But then you'd probably get some atmospheric warming from the RF energy, so it
might all be a wash. I certainly can only speculate, but I think the short
answer is 'no'.

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matthberg
Though accurate to the title, the post name is misleading (in my opinion).
Possibly useful would be revising to refer to VLF?

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aaroninsf
I will admit some disappointment that this article is not, in fact, about
ancient astronauts, monoliths, Martian pyramids, or any such thing.

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dabockster
So aliens really didn't use the Egyptian pyramids as landing pads to take
unwilling humans as hosts by acting as their Gods?

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bostonpete
The article takes no position on that question.

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dabockster
...It was a Stargate joke.

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mrfusion
I’d be curious if this effect could be how the emdrive is achieving its
thrust?

