05/22/2013 12:00 AM EDT
In
Antarctica in January, 2013 – the summer at the South Pole – scientists
released 20 balloons, each eight stories tall, into the air to help
answer an enduring space weather question: when the giant radiation
belts surrounding Earth lose material, where do the extra particles
actually go?
This NASA-funded mission is called BARREL, for Balloon
Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses. Each balloon
launched by the BARREL team floated for anywhere from three to 40 days,
measuring X-rays produced by fast-moving electrons high up in the
atmosphere.
BARREL works hand in hand with another NASA mission called
the Van Allen Probes, which travels directly through the Van Allen
radiation belts. The belts wax and wane over time in response to
incoming energy and material from the sun, sometimes intensifying the
radiation through which satellites orbiting Earth must travel.
Scientists need to understand this process better, and even provide
forecasts of such space weather, in order to protect our spacecraft.›
Image Credit: NASA
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