Have you ever heard of solar storms? Well, if you haven’t then i will
give you a little glimpse about it in this article and you will also come to
know about how it can affect the earth’s environment. Solar storms are nothing
but a variety of eruption of mass and energy from the solar surface. In simple
terms, it is the atmospheric effects felt on the earth’s surface due to events
occurring on the sun. More scientifically speaking these occurrences on the
solar surface has a direct and adverse effect on the earth’s magnetic field
that can bring the power grids, navigation and communication system to a
standstill.
These solar strikes generally come in surprise and can
create a huge mess even resulting in a worldwide ‘black-out’. If somehow the
prediction time of these solar attacks and the time-span for which the strike will
remain is known, then it will be easier for the scientists to get some time in
analyzing the storm and prepare for precautionary action against it.
NASA has came up with a new model that aims to enhance
the prediction time for these powerful solar eruption known as coronal mass
ejections (CMEs), to as much as 24 hours from 1 hour notice that the current
technology allows. CMEs fire off colossal clouds of charged particles, whose
speeds can range from a relatively lower to that of a mind-blogging speed of
3000mph. If the CMEs magnetic fields are allied south to north of the earth’s
magnetic field, the storm will not have any effect on the earth’s atmosphere and
it will undamagingly pass by, but if they are arranged in the opposite
direction, these storms can generate a major space weather event.
NASA’s powerful solar dynamics observatory, whose sole
purpose is to continuously keep an eye on sun’s activities and report in case
of any sign of flares on sun’s surface have came up with a new forecasting tool
which can predict CMEs magnetic field alignment far in advance. The observatory
has also been able to analyze the data about the shifting of the CME clouds
movement in the aftermath of the eruption. NASA has merged these data sets to
predict how these CME cloud evolves and how the magnetic field will be
oriented. This invention has indeed taken one step further in depicting the
safety of earth’s magnetosphere from these solar astro-storms in future.
If we take a look at the project’s practical
application, the scientists from NASA’s Goddard space flight center have tested
the new model from record of eight CME
/Anuttam/
