The field of geophysics deals with the physics of the Earth. This includes seismology, meteorology, oceanography, volcanology, magnetism, and geodesy. A geophysicist relies heavily on satellite instruments to study the Earth. A satellite can pick up electromagnetic radiation information and record it. Geophysicists use this information to predict everything from earthquakes to volcanic eruptions.

Any satellite based instruments a geophysicist uses to collect electromagnetic radiation data reflecting off of the Earth are sensitive to the intensity of the light entering them. Sunlight can easily overload the sensors since the intensity of the radiation coming from the Earth is much less than that of the Sun. When these instruments malfunction it usually takes weeks and sometimes months to get them operational again making the career of a geophysicist very hard. Without the data provided by the satellite systems many geophysicists would find it impossible to do their jobs.

The Sun's influence over satellite based systems is so great that when one satellite went out last year due to feedback from the Sun over 13 geophysicists in Africa had to return to the United States because they could not continue their work without satellite based systems.

   

©Copyright 1998 Elizabeth Beckett, Holly Bernitt, and Vishwa Chandra.