US Air Force plans to detonate plasma bombs in the upper atmosphere using microsatellites fleet. These activities will be carried out in order to improve the quality of radio communications over long distances. It is reported by New Scientist.
It is known that the radio at night, you can take on a much greater distance than during the day. Due to changes in the ionosphere, the charged particle density which increases night facilitated reflected signals. Manipulation of the ionosphere has been made: for example, during a military HAARP program. In Alaska, the antenna "bombard" the shell of electromagnetic rays, creating a reflecting radio waves plasma.
US Air Force going to affect the ionosphere more effectively - using ultra-small CubeSat satellites transporting ionized gas directly into the air. This project will not only increase the range of radio signals, but also to reduce the harmful effects of the solar wind on the GPS system, as well as to block the communication between enemy satellites.
However, there remain two problems: how to construct a plasma generator that can fit on a cube with a 10-centimeter faces, and how to calculate the plasma diffusion.
While the Air Force concluded agreements with several research groups. The first is going to heat up a piece of metal to evaporate: it reacts with atmospheric oxygen to generate the plasma. The second group is planning to heat the metal, exploding a small bomb: as a result of the explosion will be under the influence of clouds of different shapes of the plasma.