Wiping out HF communication with satellites?
As I have just read in Jeff’s Blog (KE9V) the US military is planing some very weird stuff according to the New Zealand Herald.
US satellite plan ‘will knock out Pacific radio linksPacific Island nations — and airline pilots around the globe — could lose high frequency radio links for up to a week if the US goes ahead with a plan to protect its satellite network, Otago University researchers said today.
The US Air Force and the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have proposed using very low frequency radio waves to flush particles from radiation “belts” above Earth and dump them into the upper atmosphere over either one or several days.
The US “radiation belt remediation” was intended to protect hundreds of low earth-orbiting satellites from having their onboard electronics ruined by charged particles in unusually intense radiation belts “pumped up” by powerful solar storms — or small nuclear weapons deliberately exploded in the atmosphere to disrupt communications.
As Jeff states: Sounds a little like science fiction but you never know what the military is planning. To me it sounds like producing solar storms with satellites… Indeed a weird idea!
[tags]ham radio, amateur radio, broadcast, dx, communication[/tags]
