When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Credit: ESA & NASAWhen severe solar storms hurtle toward Earth, the planet’s first line of defense is its magnetosphere, a vast magnetic bubble that deflects the brunt of the sun’s dangerous charged particles. Historically, humanity has only attempted to forecast the storms and brace for impact.Now, however, a team led by Brian Walsh of Boston University has proposed a bold method to actively strengthen that natural defense using a fleet of spacecraft designed to blunt the impact of space weather before it hits.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe concept, dubbed StormWall, uses computer simulations to show that reinforcing the magnetosphere could reduce the intensity of a major geomagnetic storm by more than half. If realized, the researchers say the system could protect vulnerable satellites, global communications networks, GPS systems and electrical grids from potentially catastrophic disruptions.”People have always thought, ‘space is huge, the sun is massive, we just have to sit here and take whatever it gives us,'” Walsh said in a statement. “But what we found is that we can impact it.”During particularly powerful solar eruptions, Earth’s natural shield can be breached through a process called magnetic reconnection. When magnetic fields carried by the solar wind align perfectly with Earth’s magnetic field, they temporarily link together. This opens a celestial pathway, allowing massive amounts of solar energy to pour into near-Earth space and trigger geomagnetic storms.The StormWall concept is designed to interrupt this process. The system would deploy six spacecraft into geosynchronous orbit. Each satellite would carry stores of a “mass-loading material”— substances like barium, lithium, sodium, or calcium — that can be stored safely as a solid or liquid and vaporized on command.AdvertisementAdvertisementIf a dangerous solar storm is detected heading toward Earth, mission controllers would command the fleet to release the material. Sunlight would quickly ionize the vaporized particles, transforming them into a cloud of electrically charged plasma, the study notes.This artificial plasma would drift toward the sun-facing edge of the magnetosphere, effectively thickening the boundary between Earth and the incoming solar wind. By adding …
