Ian MannJohn Ulan
Edmonton may seem an unlikely place from which to study space, especially space weather. But for Ian Mann and the other scientists and researchers on his 12-person team, it is near perfect.
"That is why I jumped at the chance to come here in 2003 from the University of York [in Britain]" says Dr. Mann, who turns 40 on June 6.
First, he says there is proximity to the Northern Lights; those dancing ion showers that affect everything from radio transmission to tropical storms; second, Edmonton boasts a great university - the University of Alberta; and third, the future exploration and exploitation of space, as well as the effects of weather systems in space, that will likely have a profound effect on the future of the Far North.
"I don't know if the average Canadian is aware of it but Canada now has the fourth largest aerospace industry in the world," he says.
And Dr. Mann is at the heart of it. Among his titles are: Canada Research Chair in space physics, principal investigator of the Canadian Space Agency-funded CARISMA magnetometer array, principal investigator of proposed space agency small satellite mission orbitals and co-investigator with NASA's THEMIS project (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms).
In a nutshell, Dr. Mann uses data from ground observatories and satellites orbiting the earth to study how bursts of energy from the sun travel through space and effect the atmosphere. The goal is to find ways to predict space weather and how conditions starting about 100 kilometres above earth affect everything we send out into space.
That understanding is increasingly vital. We already depend on global positioning satellites to guide us from place to place here on earth, he points out. Satellites provide us with the global communications link on which business, government and even entertainment depend.
Unlike its terrestrial counterpart, space weather is created by energy from a wind of charged subatomic particles that blows past the Earth from the sun at speeds of around 400 to 700 kilometres per second. Massive explosions on the sun can buffet the Earth, generating vast magnetic storms, which can knock out satellites. In Polar regions, the effect of these space storms can be seen as spectacular displays of the Northern Lights.
NASA's THEMIS project shoots satellites right into the heart of space disturbances to send back data that can then be analyzed so people like Dr. Mann can see what is happening out there.
The explosive release of energy has implications not just for space exploration and exploitation but for a better understanding of nuclear fusion power reactions as well, Dr. Mann says.
He also sees important implications for the future. Canada, he suggests, may turn to orbiting space stations as safe, secure and comfortable platforms from which to monitor Polar regions and guarantee its sovereignty over the Arctic. Similar stations could be equipped with new technology to remotely penetrate the ice and delve right into the geology of the ocean floor in the search for oil reserves and other recoverable minerals and resources.
"There are enormous future issues at stake in space, especially as it affects the North," says Dr. Mann. "Those space stations may indeed be the key to sovereignty, exploration and gaining a better understanding of global warming."
But before we can reach that stage we will have to understand the affects of the space environment on anything we send up there, he says. And that includes the space weather.
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