More solar storms on the way

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This was published 12 years ago

More solar storms on the way

Solar activity approaching peak of 11-year cycle; electrical systems could face severe disruption

Updated

Scientists are warning of further solar storms this week after Earth was hit on Thursday by one of the fastest clouds of energy to emerge from the surface of the sun in recent years.

The source of the cloud of particles, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), was a solar flare that erupted from an active region on the sun's surface that rotated into view on 3 March.

A handout image provided by NASA shows the massive solar flare erupt from the Sun.

A handout image provided by NASA shows the massive solar flare erupt from the Sun.

The "weather" in space around Earth follows an 11-year cycle that depends on the activity of the sun, with the current one predicted to peak in 2013.

Increased solar activity means more flares and CMEs - dense packets of charged particles that can crash into the Earth's magnetic field and create geomagnetic storms. This most often results in auroras near the poles but the energy released during the storms can also disrupt satellites, power stations and electrical systems. It can also increase the radiation that astronauts and anyone in an aircraft near the poles might experience.

Satellite images of the latest flare show "a complex network of sunspots indicating a large amount of stored magnetic energy", according to the British Geological Survey (BGS).

The particles left the sun at more than 1900kms per second and, due to interplanetary dust and gas, slowed on the way to Earth, crashing into our magnetic field at more than 1200kms per second yesterday.

The relative orientation of the Earth's magnetic field to the CME has, so far, managed to repel its worst potential effects, but according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that situation might change later this week as more CMEs hit.

Dr Jonathan Eastwood, a research fellow in space and atmospheric physics at Imperial College London, said: "At the moment, the Earth's magnetic field is trying to deflect the solar material around the Earth, and scientists in the UK and around the world are monitoring the situation to see if our magnetic shield will hold up."

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There was a good chance, he said, that the magnetic field's protection would break down some time on Friday, leading to a geomagnetic storm. "According to the NOAA space weather prediction centre, this could cause intermittent satellite navigation [GPS] and high frequency radio problems, especially in more polar regions, as well as bright auroral displays."

Large magnetic fluctuations caused by a CME can disrupt the national grid and damage solar arrays.

"The event is the largest for several years, but it is not in the most severe class," said Dr Craig Underwood of the Surrey space centre at Surrey University, England. "We may expect more storms of this kind and perhaps much more severe ones in the next year or so as we approach solar maximum.

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"Such events act as a wake-up call as to how our modern western lifestyles are utterly dependent on space technology and national power grid infrastructure."

Guardian News & Media 2012

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