Destruction of power grids due to solar storms could have catastrophic social and economical challenges for our planet. Experts have also highlighted that solar storms could put internet connectivity at risk too, taking us all offline. So it is important that we remain prepared for solar storms. Researchers are sending probes to the star of our solar system to study its anomalies and understand a pattern of solar storms and maybe predict its occurrence beforehand so when the charged particles do approach Earth, the electrical grids are shut to not overwhelm them and prevent them from destruction.
Rob Manning, vice president for transmission at the Electric Power Research Institute, in a statement with NBCNews said that innovators are thinking ahead, to make sure electrical hardware doesn't go down easily. Engineers are also creating capacitor banks, which could essentially act like batteries -- absorb and dissipate excess electricity.
Some are even working on installing electricity-dampening devices, more commonly known as Faraday cages, that would act like force fields that can surround and protect critical pieces of equipment.
However, according to Manning, none of these solutions are perfect. Experts believe that the best way to protect against solar storms is to predict or forecast them in advance and shut down the grid before it hits.
Researchers are working to improve these forecasts to offer warnings a few hours in advance. For more cool explainers and science news, keep visiting Indiatimes. Videos News India. Get our Daily News Capsule Subscribe. Thank you for subscribing to our Daily News Capsule newsletter.
Whatsapp Twitter Facebook Linkedin. Sign Up. Edit Profile. Subscribe Now. Flares are accompanied by the ejection of electrons and charged atoms into space. These brilliant eruptions are triggered by the rapid release of pent up magnetic energy and typically occur around sunspots, because that's where solar magnetic field lines are most likely to snap.
By contrast, coronal mass ejections are mammoth clouds of charged particles that get hurled through the sun's upper atmosphere, or corona, at millions of miles an hour.
A single CME contains billions of tons of charged particles and can bloom to be larger than the sun itself. Both solar flares and CMEs can affect Earth. A flare can infuse Earth's upper atmosphere with powerful radiation and charged particles, with impacts ranging from enhanced auroras to geomagnetic storms that can damage satellites. The radiation from a flare can also endanger astronauts in orbit. CMEs can be even more disruptive. When a CME is pointed at Earth, the shock wave that precedes it slams into and deforms Earth's magnetic shield, called the magnetosphere.
This can create surges of electric current capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and even knocking out power grids on the planet's surface. Technology isn't the only thing that's vulnerable to solar activity.
There's also evidence that life on Earth could be impacted by happenings on the sun. For example, a period of unusually low sunspot activity from to known as the Maunder Minimum corresponds to the Little Ice Age in Europe, which was marked by colder weather, heavier snowfall, and the freezing of large bodies of water such as the Thames River in the U. All rights reserved.
A massive solar flare erupted from the Sun's surface, disrupting radio waves, telecommunication networks, and power systems by triggering an intense magnetic storm. It was a C3-class solar flare, which is considered a minor solar flare with little to no effects on Earth. The solar flare launched a partial halo coronal mass ejection at a speed of about kilometers per second, which is considered relatively slow, according to Space Weather. But it created a partial halo coronal mass ejection headed towards Earth, with a minor chance of a geomagnetic storm.
Jyothi highlighted that underwater cables are not grounded well, and are therefore at risk of being damaged. Should a solar storm hit the Earth today, our GPS systems and satellites will likely be destroyed.
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