Have you ever pondered the potential consequences of being aboard a commercial flight at a significant altitude when a colossal earthquake occurs? Presumably, you would be in an altered state of consciousness that would hinder your ability to perceive and comprehend any sensory experiences, correct? The answer to that question is contingent upon several factors.

Seismic activity and atmospheric conditions
Although it may appear improbable, an earthquake can potentially lead to several consequences that could pose challenges for a flight, depending on the circumstances. However, it is important to first examine the connection between the atmosphere and the earth before delving into that topic.

Attila Komjathy, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology, explained on NASA’s website that when the ground shakes, it generates small atmospheric waves that can travel all the way up to the ionosphere. This is a region known as the exosphere, which can reach a distance of up to 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Earth’s surface.

Consequently, an earthquake has the potential to induce certain atmospheric disruptions, but is this sufficient to disrupt the operation of an aircraft? Simply put, the answer is no. However, if we delve deeper into the matter, the answer remains a resounding no, but with some intriguing nuances.

Earthquakes emit seismic waves, which manifest as pressure waves (P waves) and shear waves (S waves). S waves are restricted to propagating through solid media, such as the ground, while P waves have the ability to transmit through different types of media, including liquids and gases. Consequently, they have the ability to enter the atmosphere. When sound is transformed into soundwaves, they often have a frequency below 20 hertz, which is the minimum level for human hearing. Consequently, these soundwaves, known as infrasound, are usually inaudible.

Nevertheless, as these waves propagate through the air, their intensity diminishes. This phenomenon is known as attenuation, and it essentially refers to the decrease in sound intensity as the distance between the source and the listener increases. It is also a phenomenon that diminishes the intensity of sunlight as it passes through different layers of the atmosphere or other substances, such as the ocean.

Consequently, an aircraft traversing an earthquake, regardless of its intensity, would remain unaffected by the seismic vibrations beneath. Once the P waves have propagated through the rock and subsequently the air, their intensity will have significantly decreased, rendering them overshadowed by the plane’s own noise and movement.

Nevertheless, airplanes are not exempt from risks during an earthquake. The concerns at hand pertain to navigation and safety, albeit of a distinct nature.

In 2018, a self-proclaimed United States Air Force pilot and aero engineer named Ron Wagner provided a response on Quora to a question inquiring about the impact of earthquakes on an aircraft in flight. Wagner’s response was sufficiently captivating that Forbes subsequently shared it again.

Wagner claims that he piloted an aircraft during an earthquake, causing disruptions to air traffic control. During this occurrence, the earthquake resulted in a loss of electricity at the ground base, which consequently affected the plane’s navigation instruments and its capacity to communicate. The power outage resulted in the loss of radar signals for air traffic control, rendering them unable to determine the location of Wagner’s flight. Nevertheless, these problems were quickly resolved when the emergency power of the ground base was activated.

Although this may sound alarming, it serves as an illustration of potential occurrences. Typically, air traffic control stations possess ample emergency backup generators to handle such situations. In addition, they have meticulously developed contingency plans for system-wide events, which include strategies for addressing potential scenarios such as volcanic eruptions, nuclear fallout, floods, acts of terrorism, and earthquakes.

If you find yourself flying during an earthquake, you can rest assured that there is very little cause for concern. Typically, you will be unaware of the occurrence until you touch down.

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Mid-latitude stargazers had a delightful weekend. The recent period of heightened solar activity reached its peak with an extraordinary auroral phenomenon, visible even at latitudes where such a spectacle is typically not observed. Social media was abundantly filled with pictures, likely due to the weekend. Many individuals expressed curiosity about the occurrence and its frequency.

According to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, the Earth recently encountered a severe geomagnetic storm in the G5 category, which was the most intense event since Halloween 2003. Previously, the event was sufficiently intense to result in generator malfunctions in both Sweden and South Africa. Typically, there are four occurrences of these events during each solar cycle.

🌌 What a show! Over the weekend, many people in Europe enjoyed the spectacular display of the aurora borealis dancing above their heads.

👨‍🚀 This is how @esa astronauts have seen the Earth's sky lighting up from space – a magical thread from the International @Space_Station. 🧵… pic.twitter.com/u3lbPqlFyn

— Human Spaceflight (@esaspaceflight) May 13, 2024

There are 11 years in a solar cycle. The Sun’s activity has a high point called the maximum and a low point called the minimum. We are getting close to Cycle 25’s peak (or we are already there). In every case, the peak is seen after the event. If you’re good at math, you might have noticed that 2003 was more than 11 years ago. But Solar Cycle 24 was very different and not very strong, so it didn’t cause any G5 or G4 storms, even though each cycle usually brings 100 G4 storms.

As the Sun’s activity rises, sunspot regions appear that are a little cooler than the rest of the surface. They have very strong magnetic fields, and how these magnetic fields behave is what causes the major space weather events. A sunspot called AR3664, which is 16 times as wide as Earth, is what caused the aurora this weekend.

“One of the most basic things about magnetic field lines is that they usually can’t cross each other.” Thus, as they twist and knot, they store energy like a spring that is wound up. “Magnetic reconnection” means that these fields loosen up quickly, which can send explosive energy into space.” In a statement, the scientist in charge of space weather, Dr. John Morgan,.

Sunspots can be the cause of solar flares, which are powerful light flashes. They reach Earth eight minutes later and ionize atoms in the upper atmosphere, making it puff up. They block radio signals, mess up GPS, and put stress on satellites. AR3664 sent out an X5.8 flare, which was the second strongest of this cycle so far.

But it’s not just flares from the sun. Space weather also includes coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These are bursts of plasma moving very quickly from the Sun. At the moment, charged particles are hitting Earth, but CMEs have a lot more power. It takes a very long time for these particles to move at this speed. When they get to Earth, they follow the lines of the magnetic field and crash into the atmosphere near the poles.

Most of the time,. Northern Lights were seen in mainland Australia, Tuscany, Italy, and Southern California, which are all very far from the poles. They could be seen even in places with a lot of light pollution. That’s because a lot of plasma came in. Earth was in the right spot at the right time for several CMEs to happen at the same time. Three of them came together to form a “cannibal CME” because the last one the Sun sent out was faster than the other two and ate them up.

Some of that plasma made it to Earth and hit the atmosphere at lower latitudes more often. This meant that aurorae could be seen from many places that don’t normally see them. A lot of people also want to know if it will happen again.

“No one knows for sure.” He said, “The last few days seem to have been some of the most important events of the smartphone era.” “It’s possible that we’ve just seen the most active aurora for this solar cycle.” But history shows that big events can happen even many years after the solar cycle’s peak. For those who missed it, there’s a good chance that something similar will happen in the next few years.

Soon, Europe will be able to go into space on its own again, as Ariane 6 is set to launch for the first time this summer. We’ll let you know soon, but it’s likely to be between the middle of June and the end of July. A lot of people in Europe and beyond are scared because a lot is riding on this.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is getting a new rocket called Ariane 6. It will replace Ariane 5, which was very useful. From 1996 to 2023, Ariane 5 made 117 launches, and 112 of them were successful. Ariane 5 launched JWST into orbit. Since Arianespace produced Ariane 6, it has a lot of history to live up to and overcome. It will be taller than Ariane 5, but it will be lighter, and it will cost less to launch each time.

“The Ariane 5 rocket was Europe’s main way to send heavy and medium-sized satellites into space.” The Ariane 6 will be more up-to-date, less expensive, and able to do more. “That gives it more freedom to leave satellites in different orbits,” said Dr. Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the ESA.

“Every day, satellites help us with navigation, communication, and watching the Earth. But we also use the satellites that we send into space on our Ariane rockets to learn more about the universe.”

Coming up are missions to find habitable worlds, build X-ray observatories, and chase comets
ESA will use Ariane 6 for a variety of upcoming exciting missions. It will look for habitable worlds around stars like the Sun when it launches in 2026. It is called PLATO, which stands for planetary transits and oscillations of stars. The Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large- Survey (ARIEL) mission is smaller but related. It will take its time to study the atmospheres of about 1,000 known worlds, building on the ground-breaking work that JWST is already doing.

ARIEL and its companion mission, Comet Interceptor, are set to take off in 2029. At first, the spacecraft won’t do much. It will just stay in space, far from Earth. But if a comet from the edge of the solar system or even one from between the stars gets close, it will be sent out to study the object that hasn’t been found yet. It was definitely a one-of-a-kind mission.

LISA and ATHENA live further in the future, but they have a lot of hopes for the future. LISA will be the first space observatory for gravitational waves. It will measure the vibrations in space-time in a way that we can’t do on Earth or even the Moon. The Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA) will replace the following generation of X-ray observatories. It is expected to be 10 times better than the current ones. NASA is slowly cutting back on funding for its Chandra X-ray observatory, so 2035 can’t come fast enough.

“These missions will be sent off by Ariane 6,” said Dr. Aschbacher. “We are now getting ready for the next one, which is PLATO.” The big ones are definitely LISA and ATHENA, which are coming out in ten years. That’s what ESA is doing to help us understand the universe and figure out its mysteries. The Ariane 6 rocket will be needed to put those telescopes into orbit.

A future vehicle with a crew?
The Ariane 6 will launch more times than the Ariane 5. It will make sure that people can go to space on a regular basis, Dr. Aschbacher said, but his hope for this rocket is in the recently agreed-upon cargo transport vehicle. At the Space Summit between the European Union and ESA last November, a plan was made to have a reusable cargo vehicle carrying goods to and from the International Space Station by 2028. This vehicle could be converted into a crewed one after showing that it is safe and reliable.

“Right now, we don’t have this ability to re-enter Europe.” Without a doubt, this vehicle is important, and we’d like to improve this technology, which is a big step forward in exploration. This could become a crewed vehicle after it has flown a few times to make sure it is reliable and works well. “Of course that means for astronauts,” Dr. Aschbacher said with great excitement. But he was careful to say that the dream hasn’t thought through how projects are agreed upon and paid for in ESA yet.

“Just to be clear, this hasn’t been decided yet.” “I would need the member states to agree to this for it to happen,” he said. “This cargo or maybe crew vehicle would also be sent into space by Ariane 6 depending on how things go.” We’re not quite there yet, but this is how we think Ariane 6 could continue to grow.

Two types of the heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 will be made: the 62, which has two boosters, and the 64, which has, you guessed it, four boosters. Both will be used to send things into geosynchronous transfer orbit, low-Earth orbit, and even further. The Ariane 6 upper stage will have a new Vinci engine that can be turned on and off. This will allow satellites or payloads to be put into any orbit that is needed.

An Ariane 6 and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been compared a lot with the goal of letting businesses go into space. Ariane 6 can’t be used again, but compared to Ariane 5, it cuts costs by almost half. Launches on the Falcon fleet usually have a financial edge.

The edge of Ariane 6 might be in how much it can carry. Falcon Heavy’s expendable version, which costs more than the Ariane 64, can carry more cargo than the Ariane 64. For the version that can be used more than once, the fuel needed to safely bring back the rockets and booster cuts into the payload. A rocket must have enough thrust to carry its own weight, its fuel, and everything it needs to carry.

“Putting together a rocket is not simple; it takes a lot of teamwork.” “When I became Director-General of ESA three years ago, I looked at the progress of the [Ariane 6] project and saw that we had a lot of issues,” Dr. Aschbacher told. “Really, I spent 60% of my time with many team members getting the development of Ariane 6 back on track with the help of our industry partners.” We were able to solve all of the technical issues, which makes me very proud and happy.

Europe will soon have a whole new way to get to space after the launch in just a few weeks. But ESA isn’t just sitting back and waiting to see how Ariane 6 grows. The agency is already looking for the next launcher, which could be ready by the end of the 2030s.

“The next rocket after Ariane 6 will, of course, be reusable, which will cut costs even more and make it more useful for the European space industry and for everyone else.” A launcher may sound very complicated and technical, but it is useful for everyone. It sends solons into space. Not a launcher, not a space. There is no space, no way to connect to the Internet from space, no navigation systems, and no ways to watch Earth. This is really the most important thing that makes our standard of living possible. Dr. Aschbacher

It will take off from the European Space Port of Kourou in French Guiana, which is in South America and is part of France. On its first trip, it will carry many things, including a small satellite called “the witness” that will record the whole flight, from launch to deorbit and burn. The ESA’s newest space workers planned and constructed it.