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Shockwaves from Allied bombing raids between 1943 and 1945 killed millions and devastated much of Germany. Now we know they were so powerful they disrupted the outermost layer of our atmosphere, called the ionosphere. Physicists who made the discovery say the data provides a benchmark for estimating how other natural phenomena such as thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions, lightning and earthquakes alter the ionosphere.
The ionosphere consists mainly of molecular nitrogen, molecular oxygen, and individual oxygen atoms from which electrons get detached by solar X-rays and high-energy ultraviolet sunlight. Electrons typically …