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SpaceX rocket explosion shredded the upper atmosphere

Observations highlight threats to GPS and similar systems from natural as well as human-caused disturbances.

Study co-author Yury Yasyukevich, an atmospheric physicist at the Institute of Solar‐Terrestrial Physics in Irkutsk, Russia, says that the extent of the disturbance took his team by surprise: “It means we don’t understand processes which take place in the atmosphere.” He adds that such phenomena could have implications for future autonomous vehicles that might require precision satellite navigation. Yasyukevich and his collaborators were curious to find out how such massive explosions could affect the ionosphere, a zone of the atmosphere extending from about 50 to 1,000 kilometres above sea level in which the Sun’s radiation can strip some air molecules of their electrons. This enables researchers to measure the amount of ionization in real time by comparing the speeds of radio waves of two different frequencies, Yasyukevich explains.

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