Solar Event that can cause 2 Trillion Dollar economic risk |1859’s Carrington event |StarSpace||

· Space Science

Introduction

Hello All ,

Ever tried looking directly towards the Sun? seams evenly bright with the same color “yellow” but it is not the same color over the surface, if you observe the sun carefully using instruments like a telescope projector or a Sun spot viewer, you would notice patches of bright and dark regions ,Viewing more closely one can even notice dark spots on the sun’s surface.

Note: Not considering the red shifting due to the Atmospheric scattering of light 

Solar Activity🌞

The sun a bright sphere all made up of Plasma of Hydrogen and Helium ,it has very Huge mass and all the fission reaction which is producing immense energy and bi-product that Is helium is creating a lot of pressure. This pressure results in sun spewing out electrically charged gases this phenomenon is known as a solar wind.

The sunspots are region where there is intense magnetic activities which are cooler and Darker than the other regions on the sun but even after being cool they shine 10 times brighter than the moon.  

What causes sun spots?

Sun rotates fast but since the gases are lighter so velocity of the gases at the equator is high and this current of plasma causes twisting and turning of the magnetic field lines. When these current cause bundling and braiding to the magnetic lines it distorts to an extent at which it pop’s out , causing plasma along with these magnetic field line to make a loop, starting from one sun spot to the other.

Solar Flares🔥

When this loop of magnetic lines Break’s a Solar flare that moves out of the sun. And the sun has successfully ejected a Solar flare carrying Plasma full of high energy proton and other radiations moving away from the sun.

This process of magnetic loop disconnecting from the sun and the reconnection of main magnetic field lines inside the sun is known as a magnetic reconnection.

When the Loop of magnetic field rises the plasma moves along with the fields and at the Sun spots as the lines move closer and closer they defuse and burst to form  two fields one the main magnetic field that is inside the sun’s surface also referred to as the corona and the other one which travels away from the surface of Earth.   

This flare has an average of about  10²⁰ joules of energy.

A Solar Flare is composed of charges and radiation along with its own magnetic field so it has a much less mass and has the capability to move at near light speeds , hence it would reach earth in the time it takes for sun’s light rays to reach Earth which is about 8 to 9 minutes.

What happens when Solar Flares and solar wind hits earth??  

Less intensity solar flares and solar wind are easily shielded off by the planets magnetic field and its effect is redirected towards the poles causing the widely known phenomenon of Northern lights.

Northern lights are also known as Aurora Borealis or just Auroras. This phenomenon creates dynamic pattern of vibrant colors (florescent colors) and are found in form of curtain or ray like appearance, they cover the whole Sky at night.

They develop as the high velocity charged particle from the sun collides with various gases of the atmosphere to release energy in the form of distinct colors of lights  

Similar Phenomenon is observable on other planets like in Jupiter’s Atmosphere

There are even higher strength solar flares which are solar storms and Coronal mass ejection, when they do hit earth, they can Cause financial crises!!

Yes, because such things have happened earlier too!!

Carrington Event     

On 1 st September 1859 the Earth faced an intense Geomagnetic storm because of this many people could see Auroras (northern lights) in regions nearby the equator, many telegraph lines were induced with an exponentially large current because of which these lines were destroyed

Some people recall that they could see Bright Colorful Auroras, bright enough to let the people read Newspapers at night.

Some people who operated Telegraphs could even use the telegraphs without their Batteries connected.

This Event lasted for 2 days was known as the Carrington Event. After a scientist Richard Carrington who along with another scientist Richard Hodgson who could map out the sun spot from where the solar flare took birth.

Drawing of Sunspot of the Carrington event 

Coronal Mass Ejection

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) are large-scale disruptions of the solar corona that result in the ejection of coronal material into interplanetary space. It is kind of a scaled-up version of a Solar flare. But it has a mass of about a Billion Kg larger than a Solar Flare. Another thing that is different in this case is that the Kinetic energy from the Blast of detaching from the sun is higher. 

These intense blooms of radiation that come from the release of the magnetic energy is harmful enough to penetrate through the Earths Van Allen Belts (its magnetic fields that protects us from harmful flares and radiation coming from the space)

They can take a day to 3 days travelling but the Carrington event I was talking about earlier that CME just took 17.6 hours.

When these storms/ CME’s hit Earth and Interfere with earth’s magnetosphere then they are termed as a Geomagnetic Storm.

How the Solar wind, Solar storms and/or CME’s Effect the Earth?

When high magnitude of solar storm or a CME hit’s Earths’ magnetic fields, the fields facing the sun gets compressed and the fields opposite to the sun gets elongated,

the excess force on the earths elongated magnetic fields causes magnetic reconnection after which, there is an earth ward injection of Plasma particles (charged particles) and this earth ward projecting swarm of particles are collectively known as plasma sheet. 

how Carrington event in 1859 would have been to the earths magnetic fields 

These particles then interact with the earth's atmosphere to form Auroras

The compression on one part of the magnetic field and elongation of one part of the Earth's magnetic field will weaken the field enough to let some harmful charged particles get into the earth's atmosphere though there is no harmful effect on any living being but there might be one danger.

Effect of CME on Electrical lines

The magnetic field of the CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejection) can interact with electrical equipment, since this field is extraordinarily strong it would cause a high power of electric current to be induced into the grid.

The powerful electric currents that would flow through the electrical grid are likely to cause melting and burn through of large-amperage copper.  

Many of the Transformers will blast, and with a limited availability of the electrical equipment most of the regions affected by the collapse would remain without power until new transformers could be built. But a typical manufacturer may require more than 12 months to manufacture these transformers. So bad days for people reliant on the internet. 

We are reliant on electricity and all the task from washing the clothes to watching a show on TV requires Electricity. In fact, many industries from the IT sector to various manufacturing sectors are reliant on electricity. Without Electricity many Industries will get paralyzed

All of which could result in market crashes and economic crises.

2012

Before we move further , does any one remember the Rumor that in 2012 the earth was going to end, by the way on 23 rd July 2012 A CME missed earth by just nine days, and it would have caused a Big issue as well as an economic loss of 2.6 trillion dollars thanks to the rotation of both Earth and Sun that we were saved from such a disaster.  

Solar storm as observed from a Space based instruments on 23 June 2012 

Radio blockage which will disable all communications

The charged particles that enter the ionosphere will disrupt radio frequencies by absorbing or reflecting

During geomagnetic storms, some radio frequencies get absorbed and others get reflected, leading to rapidly fluctuating signals and unexpected propagation of the wave cause frequent disruptions in Public and amateur radio.

Astronauts and Satellites in space during a CME

It is not safe out of the Earth's Atmosphere even Astronauts at the International Space Station are not so safe considering how many Radioactive Particles and harmful light rays are constantly Bombarding. When the CME bombards the Space station, all its electrical systems would get damaged which would have resulted difficulties in recovering the astronauts

but the recovery system already exists and can be used in case of an emergency to evacuate the station.

Geomagnetic storm can disrupt Satellite communication with Earth, the sudden buildup of charge will pernitrate into the satellite's electronics and damage them also sometimes alter the output of signals by the electronics causing errors to appear. Some errors are repairable but if it is a higher magnitude wind or a storm hits then damage may be irreparable.

Satellites that are in higher orbit are more vulnerable to getting affected by a solar storm,

But a recent event of about 40 Starlink satellites which are placed in a low orbit deorbited and destroyed after malfunction due to a solar storm, this shows the ability of solar storms to reach low earth orbit deep inside the earth's shield-like magnetic fields.

Destruction of Satellites also means that the telecommunication and Navigation will get disrupted.

Summing up with Solution

Summing up a CME is the main cause of any Geomagnetic storm though a low magnitude solar storm is problematic for Satellites and humans in space.

So Finding the solar storm/CME before it causes a geomagnetic storm and measuring its effects are some solutions

 these can be detected using :

Magnetometers

These are devices responsible to detect large magnetic fields and hence many ground bases Magnetometer play significant role in detecting Solar storms. 

Radio Telescopes

An Antenna that receives Radio signals ; during an CME it might receive a burst of radio signal hence help in detecting the incoming of any CME before any geomagnetic Storm  

Solar Activities Observing telescopes and Satellites

These Observe various solar activities, sun spot formation and many more

Solutions for protecting grid lines electronics

Based upon the information gathered by the observatories the Grid lines operators can shut down all the electrical supply in the region with elevated risk to significantly reduce the damage to the grid lines.

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Description

Hi there this is Swapnil Pandit, writer for blog StarSpace

Abstract

One of the possibilities of large financial risk is unheard, the threat is posed by solar activities which causes solar flares and CME’s. CME (Coronal Mass Ejections) are harmful enough to penetrate through the Earths Van Allen belts (its magnetic fields that protects us from harmful flares and radiation) and can cause harm to the Electrical lines, the high volt it would induce may cause wire to catch fire and melt down and the worst part is to live in Black-out for Many years.

Sources

• Encyclopedia of Space and Planets (Time Life Asia Publication)
• PBS.org
• NASA's THEMIS mission
• ISRO’s educational seminar National Meet on Aeronomy Research: Science of Near-Earth Space & Applications
• Wikipedia
• Protection of the Smart City against CME By Krzysztof Lewandowski of Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
• Energetics of Coronal Mass Ejections: Role of the Streamer Cavity by RICHARD WOLFSON AND SIDDHARTH SARAN at Department of Physics, Middlebury College, Middlebury

#CMEs #SolarFlares #Starspace #Economicrisk #Blog #carringtonevent #RichardCarrington          #RichardHodgson

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