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SpaceX launched 15 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 19. While launching the satellites, the Elon Musk-led space technology firm may also have punched a hole in the planet’s Ionosphere.
The Ionosphere refers to a series of regions in the Earth’s atmosphere containing electrically charged atoms and molecules. It plays an important role in communications and navigation systems since radio and GPS signals travel through this layer or rely on bouncing off it to reach their destination, according to NASA. In both scenarios, changes in the ionosphere’s composition and density can disrupt signals.
Spaceweather.com reported earlier this week that SpaceX’s July 19 caused a hole in the Ionosphere. “This is a well-studied phenomenon when rockets are burning their engines 200 to 300 km above Earth’s surface. The red glow appears when exhaust gasses from the rocket’s 2nd stage cause the ionosphere to recombine quickly,” told space physicist Jeff Baumgardner of Boston University to the website.
Rocket engines like the ones used by the company spray water and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, reducing local ionisation by as much as 70 per cent. This is sometimes followed by a complicated series of reactions that produce a certain red light, which was captured by photographer Jeremy Perez.
Such holes in the atmosphere can affect low-frequency radio communication and can even cause glitches in GPS navigation systems. But such effects are temporary because reionisation usually begins again after the Sun rises.
