Magnetosphere Breach

The magnetosphere helps to protect our Earth from the danger of the Sun's solar wind...
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Solar wind energy in our magnetosphere can also cause what are known as space plasma storms. These storms can cause communication and science satellites to fail. They can also cause damage to electric power systems on the surface of the Earth.
A large space storm in 1989 made currents on the ground that caused a failure in the Hydro-Quebec electric power system. This prevented 6 million people in Canada and the US from having electricity for over 9 hours. The same storm caused the atmosphere to inflate and dragged the LDEF satellite to a lower orbit earlier than expected...
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read:
http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/sppb/Edu/magnetosphere/
watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-RM-DCJ6K0