You've probably heard at some point about our Planet Earth's magnetic field, an important part that shields the planet from highly dangerous solar radiation, but it is by no means static. To get an idea, we last 200 years the magnetic field has weakened 9% and this can cause problems with the proper functioning of satellites and also rockets. However, one particular region of the magnetic field that has been changing is in the southern region of the Atlantic Ocean, and it has been named the Southern Atlantic Anomaly by scientists. However, this particular region was 8% weakest since 1970.
In general, people don't need to worry about this region, at least for now, but engineers who accompany satellites or even spacecraft that pass through there need to anticipate damage and take special care. In practice, this is because a large amount of charged solar particles pass through the magnetic field and can cause faults and interrupt communications for a few moments.
To get an idea of the scale of this, the telescope Hubble, for example, passes at least ten times a day, spending 15% of the weather in the “complicated region”, according to information provided by NASA. As a result, the various equipment and astronauts on the International Space Station are also exposed to several minutes of strong radiation every day when they pass through the specific region.
With additional information from Business Insider website.
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