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Oct. 24— Forecasters warn a space storm is heading toward Earth and could disrupt power grids, satellites and some high frequency communications.
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have spotted two very active regions of the sun, one of which hurled a coronal mass ejection, or CME, into space on Wednesday. That CME is expected reach Earth today.
A CME is a massive solar event in which a huge bubble of plasma lifts off the sun's surface at incredible speeds. The result is a burst of charged particles and gas hurling through space.
How does a CME affect Earthly gadgets? The answer has to do with the magnetic field which encircles Earth as lines of force arching between the north and south poles.
Charged Particle Attack
The sun gives off a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind. When those charged particles, negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons, enter the atmosphere, rather than continuing on their journey Earthward, they are deflected along the lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field.
As the particles move north and south, they spiral towards Earth, striking atoms and ions in the atmosphere. These in turn emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light, which we see as a sheet of shimmering light known as an aurora. Aurorae are most common within two rings around the Earth, one lying between 10 degrees and 20 degrees distance from the north magnetic pole (aurora borealis) and the other lying between 10 and 20 degrees distance from the south magnetic pole (aurora australis).
Generally speaking, the solar wind is relatively constant. As a result, the Earth's magnetic field is fairly constant as well. But when an event like a CME takes place, the atmosphere is flooded with an unusually high concentration of charged particles. That causes the strength of the magnetic field to fluctuate. This is known as a geomagnetic storm.
According to the laws of electricity and magnetism, when the intensity of a magnetic field fluctuates, it can generate a current in conductors that are within the field.
Solar Blackout?
The long cables that made up a telegraph system, or that are part of our existing telephone systems and power grids, are conductors that are highly susceptible to such fields. During one intense geomagnetic storm in 1859, telegraph operators in New England disconnected the battery that powered telegraph transmission between Boston and Portland, Maine, and operated strictly using the electricity generated by that evening's aurora for nearly two hours.
Such currents can be problematic for sensitive electric grids because they can cause the voltage to vary between grounding points on a system, leading to power surges that can wreak havoc, overloading transformers and overwhelming voltage regulators. This is what happened to Hydro-Québec during a widespread blackout in 1989 that left 6 million Canadians in the dark.
Image Courtesty of Nasa
The sun now has two areas of intense solar activity, as shown in this Oct. 23, image from the SOHO spacecraft.
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have spotted two very active regions of the sun, one of which hurled a coronal mass ejection, or CME, into space on Wednesday. That CME is expected reach Earth today.
A CME is a massive solar event in which a huge bubble of plasma lifts off the sun's surface at incredible speeds. The result is a burst of charged particles and gas hurling through space.
How does a CME affect Earthly gadgets? The answer has to do with the magnetic field which encircles Earth as lines of force arching between the north and south poles.
Charged Particle Attack
The sun gives off a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind. When those charged particles, negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons, enter the atmosphere, rather than continuing on their journey Earthward, they are deflected along the lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field.
As the particles move north and south, they spiral towards Earth, striking atoms and ions in the atmosphere. These in turn emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light, which we see as a sheet of shimmering light known as an aurora. Aurorae are most common within two rings around the Earth, one lying between 10 degrees and 20 degrees distance from the north magnetic pole (aurora borealis) and the other lying between 10 and 20 degrees distance from the south magnetic pole (aurora australis).
Generally speaking, the solar wind is relatively constant. As a result, the Earth's magnetic field is fairly constant as well. But when an event like a CME takes place, the atmosphere is flooded with an unusually high concentration of charged particles. That causes the strength of the magnetic field to fluctuate. This is known as a geomagnetic storm.
According to the laws of electricity and magnetism, when the intensity of a magnetic field fluctuates, it can generate a current in conductors that are within the field.
Solar Blackout?
The long cables that made up a telegraph system, or that are part of our existing telephone systems and power grids, are conductors that are highly susceptible to such fields. During one intense geomagnetic storm in 1859, telegraph operators in New England disconnected the battery that powered telegraph transmission between Boston and Portland, Maine, and operated strictly using the electricity generated by that evening's aurora for nearly two hours.
Such currents can be problematic for sensitive electric grids because they can cause the voltage to vary between grounding points on a system, leading to power surges that can wreak havoc, overloading transformers and overwhelming voltage regulators. This is what happened to Hydro-Québec during a widespread blackout in 1989 that left 6 million Canadians in the dark.
Image Courtesty of Nasa
The sun now has two areas of intense solar activity, as shown in this Oct. 23, image from the SOHO spacecraft.