Cold War-era nuclear tests conducted by the United States and Russia at high altitudes negatively affected the weather in space, reveals a new paper published in Space Science Reviews using recently declassified data.
Among other effects, the tests "created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to several satellites." The radiation also damaged power stations in Hawaii and produced aurora (commonly called "Northern Lights") at the equator instead of close to the Earth's North and South Poles.
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