Photo: ITAR TASS, Denis Vushinsky
The joint effort involved a Russian atmospheric heating facility while a Chinese surveillance satellite handled the data gathering in orbit, allowing the researchers to gauge the result of their high-altitude experiments.
Russian and Chinese scientists performed a series of experiments this year in a bid to modify a layer of atmosphere known as ionosphere, lenta.ru portal sites the South China Morning Post. While Russian atmosphere heating facility was pumping microwaves into the upper atmosphere, a Chinese electromagnetic surveillance satellite called collected data from orbit. The first experiment resulted in physical disturbances over a 49,000 square miles area at an altitude of about 310 miles, the second experiment involved increasing the temperature of "thin, ionised gas in high altitude increased more than 100 degrees Celsius" via a particle flux.
The study was performed in order to test a new technology for possible military application, as the facilities like the one used during the experiment could allegedly be used to "modify weather and even create natural disasters" like storms and hurricanes, or even to "affect the operation of human brains".
Russkiy Mir
