Magnetosphere

The Magnetosphere is part of our ecological context, the external ecological environment that we depend on, and regulates space weather.

All life on earth, as well as the earth's atmosphere is protected from solar and extra solar radiation by a natural magnetic shield created by the movement of the molten core of the earth. It is possible this may be disrupted due to natural effects, or overcome by a large amount of solar radiation -- causing difficulty of navigation, problems with electronics and communications, cancer causing or deadly radiation, or other issues associated with high energy solar particles or the disruption of the magnetosphere in general.

There are many 'solar phenomena' that it typically protects us from such as 'space weather' and 'solar storms'.

Magnetic pole reversal is another related phenomena we monitor and plot, and which has historical precedent in the fossil record, and involves a disturbance of the magnetosphere.

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If the earth's magnetosphere is disrupted, or in the event that you are attempting to colonize another planet, or taking a long space flight it may be necessary to engineer this part of the ecology yourself.

For example if you wish to colonize, and terraform mars, and survive with minimal cancer, a large dipole magnet placed at the L1 lagrange point (a stable orbit or 'parking spot' between the sun and the planet) may potentially serve this purpose. [1]

If you wish to travel back and forth to mars, it may be necessary to do so carrying a superconducting coil and xenon/argon or other plasma gases to create a temporary shield, or another method of shielding the ship from radiation. [2]

Only a modest amount of power is required, commensurate with the amount that may be generated by space based solar panels (kw not mw).