You've probably heard of magnetic storms or solar storms. Giant eruptions appear on the surface of the sun, sending charged particles into space. When these particles come into contact with the earth's magnetic field, it can have dangerous consequences. A magnetic storm of sufficient strength can disable all modern technology we rely on every day.
The worst solar storms can cause ripple effects in our energy systems, heating up and even disrupting our entire energy infrastructure. It seems that this is all only in theory, but this has happened in the past. The most dangerous storms are caused by coronal mass ejections. Scientists cannot say for sure what causes them, cannot predict their appearance, and they will not know about their appearance earlier than after 8 minutes. This is how long it takes for a signal to travel from the sun to the Earth.
A cloud of charged particles can be seen on the way from the sun to Earth from 17 to 36 hours before they reach our planet. A simulation process is started to predict how much of the Earth will be affected by the storm. This is a very important process, since an imbalance in the Earth's magnetic balance can affect both the operation of power supply systems and the operation of orbiting satellites. Electromagnetism is at the heart of many modern technologies.
According to astrophysicist Scott McIntosh of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Observatory, the United States is so worried about the effects of magnetic storms that the plan to build supertransformers that can withstand them is being ramped up very aggressively.
Indeed, it would be very unpleasant to be left without electricity for a long time, because of an event that we cannot prevent and predict quickly enough. Alas, all that observatories offer today is a timely power outage during the exposure to storms. Not everyone may know about this, but storms are recorded monthly. Simply, this information is not disclosed particularly widely.
History
One of the most notorious storms was the 1859 Carrington outbreak. She has disabled telegraph lines around the world. If such an outbreak happened today, all modern energy would be under threat. The first year of recovery alone would have required $ 2 trillion. But in 2012, a storm, resembling in its strength Carrington, barely passed the Earth. If then the eruption had occurred a week earlier, our planet would have come under attack.
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There were other outbreaks that were well remembered. In 1989, 6 million people in Quebec were left without energy and communications. In October and November 2003, 17 outbreaks occurred at once. The planes were redirected, spacecraft instruments went offline, and Sweden was out of power for about an hour.
When to expect magnetic storms
As mentioned above, the activity of the sun remains unsolved. All we know is that the sun works in an 11-year cycle of high and low activity. At the same time, with each cycle, the sun becomes quieter. However, a quiet sun is not necessarily a calm sun. It is during periods of low activity that the biggest storms occur.
It's hard to say what to expect. In 2014, physicist Pete Riley calculated the odds of a major storm like Carrington in the next decade. They are 12 percent. That's more than a one in ten chance.
Ernest Vasilevsky
