Top line
A fleet of spacecraft could one day be used to geoengineer space, boosting Earth’s magnetic field and deliberately weakening solar superstorms before they hit Earth, according to a provocative study. published in Space Weather. The goal would be to mitigate the effects of a solar superstorm, which could cause massive damage to the power grid, global GPS outages, the destruction of thousands of satellites and prolonged internet and communications outages, according to The Planetary Society. However, such technology could also reduce aurora displays. The paper—essentially a thought experiment—suggests that satellites could release clouds of gas into Earth’s magnetosphere to dampen the effect of incoming clouds of charged particles from the sun. “As humans become more dependent on Earth’s space environment, the potential for significant damage from severe space weather continues to increase,” says the paper, whose authors call the concept a “StormWall.”
“StormWall” would use spacecraft to release plasma-forming material into Earth’s magnetosphere to reduce the intensity of a geomagnetic storm, but the same system designed to protect satellites, power grids and communications could also reduce aurora displays.
getty
Key Facts
StormWall suggests the release of gas clouds in the path of a coronal mass ejection – a cloud of charged particles from the sun. Once ionized by sunlight, the gas would become plasma.
Plasma is the highly energetic fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid and gas. It conducts electricity and reacts strongly to magnetic and electromagnetic fields — such as those found in the solar wind.
By increasing the plasma density in Earth’s magnetosphere—the planet’s giant magnetic shield—StormWall could make Earth’s magnetic shield harder to disrupt, the researchers argue.
StormWall is inspired by a natural process that already occurs during large geomagnetic storms. Earth’s upper atmosphere releases oxygen ions into space, adding mass to the magnetic field.
Diagram of Earth’s Magnetosphere
getty
How the ‘StormWall’ would work.
In simulations of the powerful geomagnetic storm of May 2024, six spacecraft released a barium-like gas over 14 hours. The model showed significant reductions in storm intensity. The intensity of a major geomagnetic storm could be reduced by 50% or more, according to the research. “Ever since humans have been in space, we’ve been trying to predict what will happen in the space environment.” he said lead researcher Brian Walsh, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University’s College of Engineering. “But we came up with a model that could turn that paradigm around. It’s like people in a village seeing a river flood — maybe they can predict when that will happen, but probably even better is if they could build a storm wall. That’s what we’re proposing here.” Walsh and his colleagues say that a massive geomagnetic storm that happens every century would cause catastrophic damage in space and on Earth, costing the power grid alone more than $2.4 trillion.
Preventing another Carrington event
An excellent example of the type of solar event that the StormWall would have been designed to moderate is the so-called Carrington Event on September 1-2, 1859. A solar superstorm, it was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history. “He generated aurora reports from Panama, Colombia, Hawaii and the Caribbean,” said Tom Kerss, astronomer, astrophotographer and author of Northern Lights: The Definitive Guide to Aurorasin his interview. “It was a great opportunity to watch something exotic, but it wasn’t entirely without danger – telegraph operators were electrocuted and there were a few short-lived fires.” Significantly, the Carrington event of 1859 occurred shortly before the existence of modern electrical infrastructure. An event of this size today could be “significantly more damaging because of the effects of widespread power loss,” according to Kerrs.
Could ‘StormWall’ Reduce Northern Lights?
Because the auroras are powered by charged particles and electrical currents in Earth’s upper atmosphere, the weakening of a geomagnetic storm could also reduce the brightness and range of the aurora borealis. “It’s an unusual thought that one day, an event that would trigger global aurora sightings could be mitigated by human hands, but there is an argument for investigating the feasibility of such an intervention,” Kerss said. “It’s helpful to keep in mind that wonderful aurora experiences are available even without such severe geomagnetic storms,” Kerss said. “Storms bringing the Northern Lights to the UK and lower 48 states are not dangerous enough to warrant mitigation.”
Practical questions
The proposed system would require an enormous but not impossible amount of material. In the May 2024 simulation, the spacecraft released about 384 tons of gas. Including tanks and spacecraft buses, the full payload would total more than 436 tons in geosynchronous orbit. The researchers suggest that this could be within the range of current or near-future heavy-lift launch systems. However, the concept faces important practical and environmental questions. Launching that much material into orbit would be expensive. More importantly, scientists do not yet know the full consequences of injecting hundreds of tons of ionized gas into Earth’s magnetosphere. “Protecting satellites by other means is probably cheaper and easier to engineer,” Kerss said.
