There's something very strange happening high above South America and the nearby Atlantic Ocean, and NASA is on the case.

Meet the South Atlantic Anomaly, a strange dent in Earth's magnetic field that is growing and splitting. It's been there for decades, but over time the anomaly has slowly changed. Although you'd never notice anything was wrong from the ground, for satellites, changes to the magnetic field that envelopes Earth can be a big deal — hence NASA's interest in the anomaly and its activities.

The connection comes because the magnetic field blocks charged particles spewed out by the sun from reaching Earth. But at the South Atlantic Anomaly, the field is dented, lowering the protective barrier above that part of Earth. The lower barrier means that more radiation bombards satellites as they fly over this region, triggering occasional shutdowns to avoid potential damage to the hardware, according to a NASA statement.