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This article aims to understand the pitch angle distributions (PADs) of the charged particles in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere using test-particle simulations. The emphasis is on characterizing the variation in pitch angle of the charged particles trapped along the Earth’s magnetic field lines. These charged particles undergo gyration, bounce, and azimuthal drift motions in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere. They are trapped until their pitch angle falls into the loss-cone to get lost into the upper atmosphere. We have developed a three-dimensional test-particle simulation model in which the relativistic equation of motion is solved numerically to track these trapped particle’s trajectories. We have examined the pitch angle distributions of the electron, proton, and oxygen for the cases where adiabatic invariants are conserved and non-conserved. For this purpose, we have considered the particle’s trajectory in the latitudinal range of [ - 40 ° , 40 ° ] for one complete drift around the Earth. We found that when adiabatic invariants are conserved, the particles possess butterfly-type pitch angle distributions. Whereas, when adiabatic invariants are not conserved, the particle’s pitch angle distribution bunches toward the 90°-peaked distribution. The situation of non-conservation of adiabatic invariants demonstrated in the present simulation is arising due to larger gyro-radius (few Earth radii) over which the ambient magnetic field is not constant. We have noticed that in the static dipolar magnetic field, all three, 1st, 2nd, and partly 3rd adiabatic invariants are non-conserved when gyro-radius is larger. The information on the change in the pitch angle distribution pattern from butterfly-type to 90°-peak distribution will be useful to understand the pitch angle distributions observed by the recent spacecraft in the Earth’s radiation belts.

According to measurements of the electric component of the electromagnetic field in the frequency range from 2 kHz to 10 MHz by the Japanese ERG satellite, generation regions of kilometric continuum radiation and new hectometric continuum radiation have been determined. It is demonstrated that the kilometric continuum is mainly observed on the dayside of the magnetosphere, its source is located near the geomagnetic equatorial plane, and the size of the source does not exceed ±(0.1–0.3)RE across this plane, where RE is the Earth radius. Hectometric radiation mainly observed in the nightside magnetosphere has two sources. One of them is located near the plasmasphere and its distance from the geomagnetic equator can reach 3RE. The second source is observed near the Earth at distances from 1.1RE to 2RE.

The effective earth radius can transform the curved ray path into a straight line, and the modified refractive index can transform the spherical ground into a plane. Using them can simplify the propagation modeling of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere, so they are widely used in the calculation of long-range propagation of electromagnetic wave, and adopted by the ITU Recommendations and the IEEE Standards. In this paper, upon employing simple geometric methods, we provide general formulas for the effective earth radius and the modified refractive index, pointing out that they both originate from the use of conformal transformations. In turn, we prove that for both quantities the formulas contained in the ITU Recommendations and the IEEE Standards are special cases of the general formulas given in this paper. Our results provide a solid mathematical background to the concepts of effective earth radius and modified refractive index, and pave the way for their use beyond the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the earth atmosphere, e.g. to the propagation of other types of waves in generic media.

Very-Low-Frequency (VLF) transmitters operate worldwide mostly at frequencies of 10–30 kilohertz for submarine communications. While it has been of intense scientific interest and practical importance to understand whether VLF transmitters can affect the natural environment of charged energetic particles, for decades there remained little direct observational evidence that revealed the effects of these VLF transmitters in geospace. Here we report a radially bifurcated electron belt formation at energies of tens of kiloelectron volts (keV) at altitudes of ~0.8–1.5 Earth radii on timescales over 10 days. Using Fokker-Planck diffusion simulations, we provide quantitative evidence that VLF transmitter emissions that leak from the Earth-ionosphere waveguide are primarily responsible for bifurcating the energetic electron belt, which typically exhibits a single-peak radial structure in near-Earth space. Since energetic electrons pose a potential danger to satellite operations, our findings demonstrate the feasibility of mitigation of natural particle radiation environment., Very-Low-Frequency (VLF) communication transmitters, operate worldwide, radiate emissions at particular frequencies 10-30 kHz. Here, the authors show VLF transmitter emissions that leak from the Earth’s ground are primarily responsible for bifurcating the energetic electron belt over 20–100 keV.

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-12T02:42:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-05-01 During their lifetime, the Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) suffer numerous close encounters (CE) with Earth, Mars and Venus. It has been demonstrated that gravitational interactions during close planetary encounters can alter an asteroid’s spin state, and hence, along with collisions, play a role in the rotational evolution of NEAs. The variation of the rotational angular momentum during the encounters can increase or decrease the rotation rate depending on the initial condition. In addition to the rotation rate, close encounters cause variation in the movement of precession and nutation of the asteroid. Using a numerical model that takes into account the spin-orbit coupling of a body with ellipsoidal shape, the subject of this study is to analyze the rotational motion (rotation, precession and nutation) of asteroids during CE with the Earth for different initial conditions. We computed the variation of the obliquity and the variation of spin period after the CE. We found significant change in obliquity and spin period only in cases with strong encounter, that is in cases that the impact parameter of the encounter (1.2 ≤ d ≤ 7 (Earth radii) and the relative velocity (v) are small. Our results also show that the variation of rotational motion due to the close encounter is capable of tumbling the axis of rotation and gravitational rupture may occur in a few cases. São Paulo State University (UNESP) Guaratinguetá Grupo de Dinâmica Orbital & Planetologia INPE – National Institute for Space Research São Paulo State University (UNESP) Guaratinguetá Grupo de Dinâmica Orbital & Planetologia

The scaling of the energy of ion beams (beamlets) WN ∼ NA in the N resonant regions of the current sheet in data from the SC-1 and SC-4 CLUSTER satellites has been analyzed. The case on February 5, 2003, for energy dispersive small-scale substructures, which are signatures of 1–20 keV beamlets in the auroral magnetosphere at geocentric distances (4.5–5.3)RE, where RE is the radius of the Earth, has been studied. This case is anomalous, since the energies of beamlets in the resonant regions (seven regions N = 1−7 with resonances R = 1−7 are identified and the region with R = 7 is located in the highest latitude auroral region) do not obey a single scaling law. The exponents A are 0.04 and 0.40 for the regions with resonances R = 1−4 and are 0.83 and 1.14 for the regions with R = 5−7 according to the SC-1 and SC-4 data, respectively. The exponents obtained from the CLUSTER satellite data differ from the theoretically predicted value A = 1.33 [L.M. Zeleny et al., JETP Lett. 85, 187 (2007)]. The beamlet energy scales for the regions with R = 5−7 can be explained by taking into account the electric field Ez perpendicular to the plane of the current sheet. The observed exponents A in the regions N = 1−4 can occur because the spatial decrease in the normal component Bz of the magnetic field, which controls the increment of the energy of ion beams in the current sheet, in these resonant regions is smaller than that in the regions N = 5−7.

The most striking contrasts that are found on the continents in paleogeographic reconstructions of the end of the Mesozoic era are the occurrence on the place of the disappeared humid subtropics of the largest Gobi Desert in Eurasia with air temperatures falling below 50° from the freezing point and annual precipitation totals at the level of 100 mm. Science does not know the processes that can lead to a cooling of the atmosphere at 70° and other equally radical changes in nature with a stable position of the blocks of the earth’s crust in space. Changes in the environment of this magnitude can only be the result of land moving northward for a distance equal to about half the radius of the Earth. Titanosaurs, described by the remains in the Gobi deposits, had a body volume, which at modern gravity corresponds to a mass of 10 to 30 ton. However, animals with such a mass and such growth could not exist now. To create the necessary pressure in the vessels and provide energy to the body, Mongolian sauropods would need a heart of 2 - 3 m in diameter. Known types of muscle tissue are unable to maintain an elongated neck and head with a mass of more than a ton. The femur bones of four-legged dinosaurs had strength sufficient to move on land only animals weighing no more than 5 - 7 tons. The bones of giant bipedal dinosaurs at a constant gravitational field would have to be subjected to specific loads, several times greater than the bones of modern elephants, which is excluded. The natural conclusion about the action of a lesser gravity in the Mesozoic provides a solution to the mystery of the truly global spread in that era of bipedal mode of movement as the most energy efficient.

An asymptotic solution of ray equations is used for numerical simulation of the electromagnetic wave propagation in a smoothly non-uniform Earth-ionosphere duct. Being an extension of the adiabatic invariant approach, our method allows one to easily calculate and visualize all descriptive and energetic characteristics of global HF radio waves, including transition between multi-hop and ricochet propagation modes, antipodal focusing, geometric divergence and ohmic absorption. A quasi-parabolic model of F2 layer with the parameters taken from the international model IRI-2012 is used in numerical examples. From the mathematical point of view, it is an example of two-scale asymptotic expansion in a small parameter $\nu \sim {H/L} \sim L/\pi R$ where ${H}$ is a characteristic height of the ionospheric layer, ${L}$ is the scale of its horizontal non-uniformity, ${R}$ is the Earth radius.

Earth's magnetosphere is vital for today's technologically dependent society. To date, numerous design studies have been conducted and over a dozen science missions have own to study the magnetosphere. However, a majority of these solutions relied on large monolithic satellites, which limited the spatial resolution of these investigations, as did the technological limitations of the past. To counter these limitations, we propose the use of a satellite swarm carrying numerous and distributed payloads for magnetospheric measurements. Our mission is named APIS (Applications and Potentials of Intelligent Swarms), which aims to characterize fundamental plasma processes in the Earth's magnetosphere and measure the effect of the solar wind on our magnetosphere. We propose a swarm of 40 CubeSats in two highly-elliptical orbits around the Earth, which perform radio tomography in the magnetotail at 8-12 Earth Radii (RE) downstream, and the subsolar magnetosphere at 8-12RE upstream. In addition, in-situ measurements of the magnetic and electric fields, plasma density will be performed by on-board instruments. In this article, we present an outline of previous missions and designs for magnetospheric studies, along with the science drivers and motivation for the APIS mission. Furthermore, preliminary design results are included to show the feasibility of such a mission. The science requirements drive the APIS mission design, the mission operation and the system requirements. In addition to the various science payloads, critical subsystems of the satellites are investigated e.g., navigation, communication, processing and power systems. We summarize our findings, along with the potential next steps to strengthen our design study., Accepted in Acta Astronautica

Planets between 1-4 Earth radii with orbital periods, 13 pages, 8 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

On the basis of the Petschek reconnection model and the characteristics of reconnection, hundreds of reconnection exhausts were reported in the solar wind. Many multi-spacecraft observations also indicated that interplanetary magnetic reconnection is a quasi–steady-state plasma process and the reconnection X-line can extend hundreds of Earth radii. In this study, we report an interplanetary flapping reconnection exhaust observed by Wind on April 1, 2003 at one AU. The magnetic reconnection event has two adjacent accelerated flows. We compared the plasma and magnetic characteristics of the two accelerated flows and found that the second accelerated flow was due to the back-and-forth movement of the reconnection exhaust. Our observations reveal that not all interplanetary reconnections operate in a quasi–steady-state manner; some reconnection current sheets can move rapidly back and forth.

K2-25b is a Neptune-sized exoplanet (3.45 Earth radii) that orbits its M4.5 host with a period of 3.48 days. Due to its membership in the Hyades Cluster, the system has a known age (727 +/- 75 Myr). K2-25b's youth and its similarities with Gl 436b suggested that K2-25b could be undergoing strong atmospheric escape. We observed two transits of K2-25b at Lyman-alpha using HST/STIS in order to search for escaping neutral hydrogen. We were unable to detect an exospheric signature, but placed an upper limit of (R_p/R_s) < 0.56 at 95% confidence by fitting the light curve of the Lyman-alpha red-wing, or < 1.20 in the blue-wing. We reconstructed the intrinsic Lyman-alpha profile of K2-25 to determine its Lyman-alpha flux, and analyzed XMM-Newton observations to determined its X-ray flux. Based on the total X-ray and extreme ultraviolet irradiation of the planet (8763 +/- 1049 erg/s/cm^2), we estimated the maximum energy-limited mass loss rate of K2-25b to be 10.6 x 10^10 g/s (0.56 Earth masses per 1 Gyr), five times larger than the similarly estimated mass loss rate of Gl 436b (2.2 x 10^10 g/s). The photoionization time is about 3 hours, significantly shorter than Gl 436b's 14 hours. A non-detection of a Lyman-alpha transit could suggest K2-25b is not significantly losing its atmosphere, or factors of the system are resulting in the mass loss being unobservable (e.g., atmosphere composition or the system's large high energy flux). Further observations could provide more stringent constraints.

In this work, we aimed to see how changes in the Earth's gravitational field in the context of general relativity modify the radius and age values of the universe in the previously developed distance-determining model. By applying the relationships of light propagating in accelerating systems and gravity to the Earth moving with the Milky Way galaxy in the expanding universe and to the light propagating in the surface gravity of our planet moving in this way, the radius and age of the universe can be determined. For a redshift extent of 3.1415 in the cosmos, we can determine a so-called “short evolving distance” from the Einstein equation. Knowledge of the entire plane angle (2.\(\pi\)) and the deviating angle of a light beam (\(\alpha\)) passing through the Earth’s surface gravity it is possible to determine extreme distances by utilizing the rules of trigonometry. This “long evolving distance,” which is approximately in the range of the radius of the universe, can be transformed into the “evolving time” divided by the speed of light. Based upon this dating method, the universe may have been formed at an average value of 13.7536 billion years. In addition to the cosmos radius and age, different but small changes can be observed in these, taking into account the changes in the Earth's surface gravity associated with its shape and position. These values fall between 13.6879 and 13.8498 billion years, almost completely covering the range given by the analysis of the measurement results of the WMAP and Planck satellites.

International audience; Icecube neutrino detector a cubic kilometer in South Pole, traces energetic TeVs-PeVs neutrino signals by their cascades or better by their tracks inside its icy volume. Cascades, explosivespherical showers in icy, are mostly for electron or tau or neutral current, tracks are made by muons. High energy tau tracks might show a birth place cascade and a second decay tau shower,allowing a peculiar directional track. In general hundreds TeVs-PeVs Cascades show very poor directionality. Therefore they are nearly blind to disentangle the source event. Therefore wesuggest to neglect such cascades in future Gen-2 Icecube. Indeed the most interesting signals are the tens TeVs up to PeVs muon upgoing tracks, either born inside, HESE, or outside Icecube: thetrought going muon tracks. These ones are more abundant at ultra high energy (UHE) regimes because their interactions is outside the Icecube, mainly in the wider volume of dense rock aroundand below the Icecube volume. Such several kilometers tracks offer the most energetic and precise neutrino astronomy. Moreover highest tens TeV or PeVs neutrinos become opaque to theEarth radius. Therefore they are arriving mainly as up-going nearly horizontal tracks, because they are crossing only short Earth cords. In consequence we suggest an upgrade Muon Icecubedetector by a widest kilometers spaced concentric spiral array rings (around old Icecube), each arm nearly a kilometer far from the other, leading to the largest and widest array net (for anygiven string number). Such wider (km) empty array volumes, like a sponge, may better amplify, almost quadratically, the observed mass volume, in comparision to a more dense but homogeneousvolumetric cubic one (at 240 or 330 meters distance among strings) as the Icecube Gen-2 project. In our first approximation one may obtain an increased cubic volume reaching about 50 times the kilometer Icecube array, by a shell like spiral volume or a honeycomb cell net, leading not to a few rare (hundred TeV energy) event a year but to many tens or even a hundred of such neutrino tracks each year, running toward a more statistical rich astronomy.

Terrestrial ecliptic dayside observations of the exospheric Lyman-α column intensity between 3–15 Earth radii (Re) by UVIS/HDAC at CASSINI have been analysed to derive the neutral exospheric H-density profile at the Earth's ecliptic dayside in this radial range. The data were measured during CASSINIS's swing by manoeuvre at the Earth on 18 August 1999 and are published by (Werner et al., 2004). In this study the dayside HDAC Lyman-α observations published by (Werner et al., 2004) are compared to calculated Lyman-α intensities based on the 3D H-density model derived from TWINS Lyman-α observations between 2008–2010 (Zoennchen et al., 2015). It was found, that both Lyman-α profiles show a very similar radial dependence in particular between 3–8 Re. Between 3.0–5.5 Re impact distance Lyman-α observations of both TWINS and UVIS/HDAC are existing at the ecliptic dayside. In this overlapping region the cross-calibration of the HDAC profile against the calculated TWINS profile was done, assuming, that the exosphere there was similar for both due to comparable space weather conditions. As result of the cross-calibration the conversion factor between counts/s and Rayleigh fc = 3.285 [counts/s/R] is determined for these HDAC observations. Using this factor the radial H-density profile for the Earths ecliptic dayside was derived from the UVIS/HDAC observations, which constrained the neutral H-density there at 10 Re to a value of 35 cm−3. Furthermore, a faster radial H-density decrease was found at distances above 8 Re (≈ r−3) compared to the lower distances 3–7 Re (≈ r−2.37). This increased loss of neutral H above 8 Re might indicate a higher rate of H ionization in the vicinity of the magnetopause at 9–11 Re (near sub solar point) and beyond, because of increasing charge exchange interactions of exospheric H atoms with solar wind ions outside the magnetosphere.

At least 30\% of main sequence stars host planets with sizes of between 1 and 4 Earth radii and orbital periods of less than 100 days. We use N-body simulations including a model for gas-assisted pebble accretion and disk--planet tidal interaction to study the formation of super-Earth systems. We show that the integrated pebble mass reservoir creates a bifurcation between hot super-Earths or hot-Neptunes ($\lesssim15M_{\oplus}$) and super-massive planetary cores potentially able to become gas giant planets ($\gtrsim15M_{\oplus}$). Simulations with moderate pebble fluxes grow multiple super-Earth-mass planets that migrate inwards and pile up at the inner edge of the disk forming long resonant chains. We follow the long-term dynamical evolution of these systems and use the period ratio distribution of observed planet-pairs to constrain our model. Up to $\sim$95\% of resonant chains become dynamically unstable after the gas disk dispersal, leading to a phase of late collisions that breaks the original resonant configurations. Our simulations naturally match observations when they produce a dominant fraction ($\gtrsim95\%$) of unstable systems with a sprinkling ($\lesssim5\%$) of stable resonant chains (the Trappist-1 system represents one such example). Our results demonstrate that super-Earth systems are inherently multiple (${\rm N\geq2}$) and that the observed excess of single-planet transits is a consequence of the mutual inclinations excited by the planet--planet instability. In simulations in which planetary seeds are initially distributed in the inner and outer disk, close-in super-Earths (abridged)., Accepted in A&A, version including language editing

L 98-59 is an M3V dwarf star that hosts three small (R < 1.6 Earth radii) planets. The host star is bright (K = 7.1) and nearby (10.6 pc), making the system a prime target for follow-up characterization with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Herein, we use simulated transmission spectroscopy to evaluate the detectability of spectral features with HST and JWST assuming diverse atmospheric scenarios (e.g., atmospheres dominated by H2, H2O, CO2, or O2). We find that H2O and CH4 present in a low mean-molecular weight atmosphere could be detected with HST in 1 transit for the two outermost planets, while H2O in a clear steam atmosphere could be detected in 6 transits or fewer with HST for all three planets. We predict that observations using JWST/NIRISS would be capable of detecting a clear steam atmosphere in 1 transit for each planet, and H2O absorption in a hazy steam atmosphere in 2 transits or less. In a clear, desiccated atmosphere, O2 absorption may be detectable for all three planets with NIRISS. If the L 98-59 planets possess a clear, Venus-like atmosphere, NIRSpec could detect CO2 within 26 transits for each planet, but the presence of H2SO4 clouds would significantly suppress CO2 absorption. The L 98-59 system is an excellent laboratory for comparative planetary studies of transiting multiplanet systems, and observations of the system via HST and JWST would present a unique opportunity to test the accuracy of the models presented in this study., Submitted to AJ

We propose the use of the Earth as a transducer for ultralight dark-matter detection. In particular we point out a novel signal of kinetically mixed dark-photon dark matter: a monochromatic oscillating magnetic field generated at the surface of the Earth. Similar to the signal in a laboratory experiment in a shielded box (or cavity), this signal arises because the lower atmosphere is a low-conductivity air gap sandwiched between the highly conductive interior of the Earth below and ionosphere or interplanetary medium above. At low masses (frequencies) the signal in a laboratory detector is usually suppressed by the size of the detector multiplied by the dark-matter mass. Crucially, in our case the suppression is by the radius of the Earth, and not by the (much smaller) height of the atmosphere. We compute the size and global vectorial pattern of our magnetic field signal, which enables sensitive searches for this signal using unshielded magnetometers dispersed over the surface of the Earth. In principle, the signal we compute exists for any dark photon in the mass range $10^{-21} \text{eV}\lesssim m_{A'} \lesssim 3\times 10^{-14} \text{eV}$. We summarize the results of our companion paper [arXiv:2108.08852], in which we detail such a search using a publicly available dataset from the SuperMAG Collaboration: we report no robust signal candidates and so place constraints in the (more limited) dark-photon dark-matter mass range $2\times 10^{-18} \text{eV} \lesssim m_{A'} \lesssim 7\times 10^{-17} \text{eV}$ (corresponding to frequencies $6\times 10^{-4} \text{Hz}\lesssim f \lesssim 2\times 10^{-2} \text{Hz}$). These constraints are complementary to existing astrophysical bounds. Future searches for this signal may improve the sensitivity over a wide range of ultralight dark-matter candidates and masses., 37 pages, 5 figures. Published version. v3 reflects an update to an acknowledgment

The surface refractivity, the refractivity gradient and effective earth radius factor (k-factor) are useful ingredients for predicting the local radio wave propagation conditions in the troposphere. In this study the surface refractivity, refractivity gradient and k-factor were estimated and analyzed from the measurements of air temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure in Auchi area of Edo State, Nigeria which is located within Latitude 7.07°N and Longitude 6.27°E using a set of three self designed cost effective portable weather monitoring systems for a period of two years (2016 and 2017) in order to derive the radio propagation conditions. The weather monitoring devices were positioned at three different height levels of 50, 100 and 150 m at the administrative block of Edo University Iyamho, Auchi area of Edo State, Nigeria of about 200 m height for the measurements of the atmospheric weather variables respectively. The results show that the surface refractivity and the k-factor values were generally higher during rainy seasons compared to that of the dry seasons; while the refractivity gradient values were higher in the dry seasons compared to the rainy seasons and that surface refractivity was inversely proportional to the height; while the refractivity gradient and the k-factor have no defined pattern of proportionality variance with the height for the period under consideration. The average values of the surface refractivity, refractivity gradient and the k-factor for the period under consideration are 355.83 N-units, −55.85 N-units/km and 1.50 respectively. Consequently, it is deductively concluded that the local radio propagation condition for the Auchi area of Edo State, Nigeria is predominantly super-refractive.

Using viscoelastic mass spring model simulations to track heat distribution inside a tidally perturbed body, we measure the asymmetry of heating in the crust of a spin synchronous Moon in eccentric orbit about the Earth. With the Moon within a few Earth radii of the Earth, we find that tidal heating per unit area in a lunar crustal shell is asymmetric due to the octupole order moment in the Earth's tidal field and is 10 to 20\% higher on its near side than on its far side. Tidal heating reduces the crustal basal heat flux and the rate of magma ocean crystallization. Assuming that the local crustal growth rate depends on the local basal heat flux and the distribution of tidal heating in latitude and longitude, a heat conductivity model illustrates that a moderately asymmetric and growing lunar crust could maintain its asymmetry. Near/far side asymmetric tidal heating could serve as a trigger for uneven lunar crustal growth., Comment: Accepted Icarus

The present study examines the response of the terrestrial magnetosphere to the long-term steady declining trends observed in solar magnetic fields and solar wind micro-turbulence levels since mid-1990's that has been continuing beyond the mini-solar maximum of cycle 24. A detailed analysis of the response of the terrestrial magnetosphere has been carried out by studying the extent and shape of the Earth's magnetopause and bow shock over the past four solar cycles. We estimate sub-solar stand-off distance of the magnetopause and bow shock, and the shape of the magnetopause using numerical as well as empirical models. The computed magnetopause and bow shock stand-off distances have been found to be increasing steadily since around mid-1990's, consistent with the steady declining trend seen in solar magnetic fields and solar wind micro-turbulence levels. Similarly, we find an expansion in the shape of the magnetopause since 1996. The implications of the increasing trend seen in the magnetopause and bow shock stand-off distances are discussed and a forecast of the shape of the magnetopause in 2020, the minimum of cycle 24, has been made. Importantly, we also find two instances between 1968 and 1991 when the magnetopause stand-off distance dropped to values close to 6.6 earth radii, the geostationary orbit, for duration ranging from 9$-$11 hours and one event in 2005, post 1995 when the decline in photospheric fields began. Though there have been no such events since 2005, it represents a clear and present danger to our satellite systems., Accepted for publication in JGR-Space Physics. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1709.01407