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Tuesday September 1, 2009
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 The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $2 million grant to researchers at Virginia Tech to build a chain of space weather instrument stations in Antartica, according to NetworkWorld.
The new stations will consist of radar units that hook into the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, an international project that when combined will give extensive views of the upper atmosphere in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, according to the report.
The researchers hope to use the stations to better understand how space weather affects satellite performance for GPS, TV reception, and cell phones. In addition, astronauts are vulnerable to energetic radiation at space station altitudes, the report said, and electric power distribution systems can be disrupted by geomagnetic storms. (Image credit: Virginia Tech)
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