Solar Week - Ask a Question



Come here during Solar Week (next one: March 22-26, 2021) to interact. To post a question, click on your area of interest from the topics below, and then click on the "Ask New Question" button. Or EMAIL or tweet or plant in Answer Garden your question about the Sun or life as a scientist to us -- and watch for it to appear here.  You can also visit our FAQs (frequently asked questions). In between Solar Weeks in October and March, you can view all the archives here.

PrevPrev Go to previous topic
NextNext Go to next topic
Last Post 5/20/2015 10:46 AM by  Christina Cohen
solar storms
 1 Replies
Sort:
You are not authorized to post a reply.
Author Messages

Anonymous





Posts:


--
5/20/2015 6:35 AM

    andrea s

    could a solar storm stong enough do damage on earth?

    Tags: solar storms

    Christina Cohen



    Basic Member


    Posts:148
    Basic Member


    --
    5/20/2015 10:46 AM

    Hi Andrea,

    Absolutely! When the coronal mass ejection from the Sun hits the magnetic field of the Earth, it can distort it significantly. When that happens, currents are created in the Earth which can affect the flow of electricity in power lines. Occasionally this effect is so strong that it can overwhelm and even melt the transformers which govern the power grids. This happened in a huge way in 1989 and caused a 9 hour power outage for all of Quebec. These transformers are very expensive and typically there aren't spares lying around, so replacing one isn't a simple task and can take more than a year.

    The largest storm we know of occurred in 1859 and is called the Carrington Event (named after one of the scientists that observed the huge solar flare and connected it to the effects on the Earth less than a day later). There are reports of telegraph sparking and setting paper on fire and aurora seen in locations almost down to the equator.

    In addition the x-rays from the large flares that typically accompany solar storms can cause radio blackouts, affecting many of our communications. The energetic particles that are also part of the storm can impact satellites causing problems ranging from scrambled data to frying the onboard computer. Astronauts that are on spacewalks can be killed by the radiation in the very large storms and can have significant health effects even if they are in the space station (but not in the protected areas) during these events.

    With our society's increasing dependence on satellite communications, large-scale power grids, and general electronics, the effect of a Carrington-like event today could be catastrophic. This is why there is a large emphasis on understanding enough about the development and start of these storms so that we can predict when they will occur and give enough warning for certain precautions to be taken.

    -Christina

    You are not authorized to post a reply.


    Twitter Feed

    Scientist Leaderboard

    Name # of replies
    Multiverse skin is based on Greytness by Adammer