the.com/ionosphere
Earth's electric ceiling, where sunlight rips atoms apart and radio waves go to bounce.
means The layer of Earth's upper atmosphere, roughly 50 to 600 miles up, where solar radiation knocks electrons off atoms to create charged particles that can reflect radio waves.
from A 20th-century coinage from 'ion' plus 'sphere.' 'Ion' comes from the Greek 'ion,' meaning 'going' (the present participle of 'ienai,' to go), chosen by Michael Faraday's circle because these charged particles travel toward electrodes. 'Sphere' traces back to Greek 'sphaira,' a ball or globe. So the name literally means 'the going-particle ball' wrapped around the planet — the region defined by its restless, traveling charges.
- sun-powered
- It thins at night when the sun stops stripping electrons
- radio mirror
- Bounces shortwave signals around the curved planet
- aurora zone
- Northern lights ignite within its charged layers
- GPS meddler
- Its electrons bend satellite signals, throwing off positions
- discovered 1924
- Proven by bouncing radio pulses off the sky
van allen radiation belts — high-energy particle region discovered 1958, extends through ionosphere and magnetosphere
sudden ionospheric disturbance — x-ray burst from solar flares causes blackout of radio signals, monitored constantly since 1930s
arecibo ionospheric heating — facility in puerto rico used 1974-2020 to study plasma dynamics in upper ionosphere