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service on the way.” Natural Resources Canada has set up Space WeatherCanada as a regional warning centre of the International Space EnvironmentService.The ability to predict space weather events depends on the travel time betweenthe sun and Earth. Solar radiation reaches Earth in just a few minutes, and somecharged particles also arrive quickly, but others can take several days. A coronalmass ejection, for example, is “slower moving,” said Manuel. “These are blasts ofbillions of tonnes of material that come off the sun during flares. If the Earth is inthe way of one of those, it can cause massive disturbances in the magnetic field.They take a few days to arrive, so if we know they’re coming, we can issue theappropriate warnings to the airline industry, satellite operators and hydro systemsso they can brace themselves.”There are things these industries can do to reduce their vulnerability. Airlines candivert or cancel flights and power companies can make adjustments on theirelectricity grids. Satellite operators can put their spacecraft into low-power safemodes and shut down critical or vulnerable components.Manuel said Canada is in a unique position to study space weather because it isthe country with the largest landmass beneath the auroras and geomagneticdisturbances in the ionosphere, a region containing electrically charged particleswhere the auroras are located. “By virtue of its location, Canada has a front-rowseat. The auroras are shifted further south over Canada than any other countryand this allows us to put instruments underneath them.”For many years, Canada has used this geographic advantage to study solarterrestrialinteractions in the upper atmosphere and has become a leader in thisfield. Now it is building on previous monitoring programs and infrastructure tocreate an even more extensive network of ground-based instruments to observegeomagnetic space. Called Canadian Geoscience Monitoring (CGSM), thisnetwork, when completed, will include several different kinds of instruments:• all-sky imagers: cameras that measure different wavelengths of lightand can observe the colors of the aurora. These colors are the result ofcharged particles from the sun colliding with atoms in the upperatmosphere so observing them provides important information about theprocesses involved in the interaction between solar particles and theatmosphere.• meridian scanning photometers: instruments that measure theintensity of light at different wavelengths. These devices preciselymeasure the characteristics of the light coming from the aurora.56
• riometers: instruments that observe the cosmic background radiation atradiowavelengths. This radiation is disrupted by auroras, so these instrumentsprovide an indirect measure of the strength of auroral activity.• Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosondes (CADI): instruments that sendout bursts of radio energy high into the atmosphere. The reflections willprovide information on the state of the ionosphere.• superDARN radars: these send out bursts of radio energy and measurethe reflections from the active regions of the aurora. Unlike the CADIinstruments, which look straight up, the superDARN radar signals go outat a more horizontal or oblique angle. These radars can be used to detecthorizontal movements (essentially winds) of electrically charged gases inthe ionosphere, caused by heating from the aurora. Combining the datafrom the CADI and superDARN instruments can provide greater insightinto activity within the ionosphere and the auroras.• fluxgate magnetometers: instruments that measure the strength of theEarth’s magnetic field in their vicinity with great precision. Magnetic fieldsand electrical currents are inextricably linked. The ionosphere is awash inelectrical currents caused by solar-terrestrial interactions and thesecurrents affect the Earth’s magnetosphere; measuring magnetic fieldstrength on Earth can reveal important information about the state of theelectrical currents high in the atmosphere.• induction coil magnetometers: instruments that detect very fastvariations in the Earth’s magnetic field, caused by disturbances ingeospace.• solar monitor: a device that monitors radio wavelengths emitted fromthe sun. Variations in the intensity of this radiation are correlated withsunspots, relatively dark areas on the sun associated with intensemagnetic activity.Some of these instruments were part of a pre-existing network and are already inplace, mostly in Western Canada and the North. The Canadian Foundation forInnovation provided funding to add new instruments to the network. When it iscompleted, scientists will be able to observe events happening in the ionospherewith far greater resolution over time and space than ever before.The science team that will collect and analyze all this data is also large anddiversified. It includes nearly three-dozen researchers from five Canadianuniversities (the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University ofSaskatchewan, the University of Western Ontario and the University of NewBrunswick) as well as three government agencies (Natural Resources Canada,the National Research Council’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory andthe Canadian Space Agency.)57
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