Abstract
IT was reported a few days ago that communication with Canada, by the new beam system of rays of short wave-length, had been completely blocked by a magnetic storm. Why should this be? The fluctuations of magnetic force are but slight, and one might expect the rays to arrive by an altered path. May we assign a deeper and more fundamental cause? That the magnetic storm is itself due to an incursion of free electrons into the upper atmosphere, in such numbers as to upset all the ray-paths and twist them out of regularity. The number of foreign electrons need not be very great. The only alternative seems to be oscillation of the magnetic field, so rapid as to be comparable with the time of transit of the ray: which is very unlikely.
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LARMOR, J. Magnetic Storms and Wireless Communication. Nature 118, 662 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118662c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118662c0
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