THE weather on Earth is hard enough to predict, let alone control. But we might have more luck with space weather. An electrical engineer has proposed that satellites beaming out radio waves would help drain high-energy particles from Earth’s radiation belts, averting the worst ravages of solar storms.
The sun regularly hurls huge bursts of charged particles at the Earth, which boost radiation levels and cause magnetic storms and auroras when they hit the planet’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere (see Graphic). Many of the charged particles get trapped in regions of the magnetosphere called the Van Allen belts, which…
