Terrestrial space weather protection through human-produced mass-loading

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel approach to mitigate severe space weather impacts by artificially mass-loading Earth's magnetosphere, potentially reducing storm intensity by over 50% using current technology.

Contribution

It introduces a new paradigm of active mitigation of space weather through human-produced mass-loading, supported by realistic simulations and analysis.

Findings

Artificial mass-loading can reduce geomagnetic storm intensity by over 50%.

Simulations demonstrate technical feasibility with current technology.

The approach offers a proactive alternative to prediction-based space weather mitigation.

Abstract

While humans become more reliant on Earth's space environment, the potential for significant harm from severe space weather continues to grow. As structures from the sun reach Earth's magnetosphere and space environment, they deposit energy that fuels geomagnetic storms. Currently, space weather researchers work to predict the timing and intensity of space weather events, often providing warnings of several days prior to the initiation of a strong geomagnetic storm. Here a new paradigm is presented where, rather than prediction, active steps are taken to mitigate the impact of solar wind structures through temporarily modifying Earth's magnetosphere. Global magnetohydrodynamic simulations are used to demonstrate that artificial mass-loading Earth's dayside magnetosphere can fortify Earth's space environment against strong space weather events. The simulations and supporting analysis use realistic mass-loading from model spacecraft at geosynchronous orbit to show the validity of the enabling physics as well as technical feasibility with current technology. The results demonstrate that with modern technology, the intensity of a major geomagnetic storm could be actively reduced by 50 percent or more, protecting technology and human life.