Overall, Mars' atmosphere reduces the radiation dose compared to what we saw during the flight to Mars.
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But it also has a breathable atmosphere and much lower radiation levels and is a lot easier to reach.
That plus Chernobyl released ten times as much radiation into the atmosphere.
One of the main challenges for anyone attempting to ascertain the health effects of Chernobyl radiation is that there is so much background radiation in the atmosphere to begin with.
They also conclude that greenhouse warming has partially been offset by the cooling effect of aerosols - tiny particles of dust thrown into the atmosphere that can reflect solar radiation back into space.
The tie-in is related to the height in the atmosphere from which clouds radiate infrared radiation to space.
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"The first thing that happens when we add carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is it radiates some extra radiation back down to the surface, and we warm up a little bit, " Kirk-Davidoff says.
The disaster caused billions of dollars worth of damage to residential and commercial property and also damaged a nuclear reactor that was operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), sending dangerous levels of radiation out into the atmosphere.
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The Northern Lights happen when incoming solar radiation hits the earth's upper atmosphere and excites atoms to a new energy state, emitting colours which is energy in the form of light.
Well, it seems that astrophysicist Ralph Neuhauser has the unexciting answer -- most of the radiation would have been caught by the atmosphere, meaning that it's highly unlikely anyone succumbed to an accidental overdose.
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They can cause long-lasting radiation storms in our planet's upper atmosphere and trigger radio blackouts.
Current experiments, which were launched in September, include looking for microbes in the upper atmosphere, detecting cosmic rays, and looking for Cherenkov radiation.
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But the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, because the phenomenon is due to the absorption of infra-red radiation by various gases in the air.
With light and power sorted, the next challenge would be protecting green houses from cosmic radiation, micro-meteorites and other dangers presented by the absence of an atmosphere.
The basic concept is the same as that underpinning the "white roads" idea -- the development of a technology that can reflect a proportion of the sun's radiation away from the earth's surface and back out into space, thereby cooling the atmosphere and slowing, or even reversing the damaging effects of global climate change.
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The sub-millimeter radiation that the telescope will collect is usually absorbed by water, but the lack of moisture in the atmosphere will enable scientists to enjoy a clear view of the sky.
Solar energy can, of course, be gathered on Earth, but only about half of the sun's radiation ever makes it to the Earth's surface--the rest is either absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected back by clouds.
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