May turn off the Internet and electrical appliances: the Earth will be covered by a strong magnetic storm

The National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) warns that a G2-class geomagnetic storm could hit Earth on Thursday, September 2, possibly affecting electrical grids and transformers, jamming satellites, disrupting radio communications, and sending the northern lights much further south. than usual. Writes about it Weather boy.

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In recent days, several explosive events have occurred on the Sun, each of which has sent different types of waves to the Earth. In the past 48 hours, northern lights have been spotted in southern Alaska, as well as New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Geomagnetic storms are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the weakest and 5 being the highest damage potential. Even a G1 geomagnetic storm can cause problems: there may be slight fluctuations in the power grid and minor impacts on satellite operations. The location of the northern lights changes as the size of the geomagnetic storm increases.

The dark regions on the Sun, known as coronal holes, are currently one of the main driving forces behind space weather. According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, coronal holes look like dark regions on the Sun because they are colder than the surrounding plasma and are exposed magnetic field lines.

These dark areas appear in the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere known as the corona. The solar corona was also one of the main features of the sun that scientists were most interested in during the last solar eclipse. You can see these features in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray images of the Sun.

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The solar wind always flows from the Sun to the Earth, but coronal holes are known for emitting amplified waves. Coronal holes can appear anywhere on the Sun and are more common during the solar minimum. One rotation of the Sun occurs every 27 days, and coronal holes can sometimes last several of them. Permanent coronal holes can often be seen at the sun's north and south poles, but they can sometimes expand towards the sun's equator. Usually, coronal holes located near the equator of the Sun cause the solar wind to reach the Earth more quickly. Coronal holes create levels of geomagnetic storm G1-G2, and on rare occasions, levels above G3 are encountered.

NOAA forecasters analyze these features and must take them into account in every forecast. If Earth is affected by a coronal hole and a coronal mass ejection is predicted to impact Earth, the combined effects could result in a larger impact and more intense geomagnetic storm. Analyzing data from the DSCOVER and ACE satellites is one way forecasters can determine when stronger solar wind from the coronal hole is about to reach Earth. A few things they look for in the data to determine when stronger solar wind arrives at Earth:

• the speed of the solar wind increases;
• the temperature rises;
• the density of particles decreases;
• the intensity of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) increases.

If you are a fan of aurora borealis or space weather, you should check out coronal holes. They provide most of the geomagnetic activity and remain stable during the solar minimum.

While these solar phenomena can help illuminate the sky with stunning aurora, they can also cause significant damage to electronics, electrical grids, satellite and radio communications.

On September 1-2, 1859, during the 10th solar cycle, a powerful geomagnetic storm hit the Earth. A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit the Earth and caused the largest geomagnetic storm on record. The storm was so severe that it created extremely bright lights all over the planet: people in California thought the sun rose early, people in the northeastern United States could read a newspaper at night in the bright light of the northern lights, and people as far south as Hawaii and the South -Central Mexico could see the northern lights in the sky.

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The event severely damaged the limited electrical and communication lines that existed at the time; telegraph systems around the world were out of order, and some telegraph operators reported receiving electric shocks.

A June 2013 study found that if such an event occurs in our time, the damage in the United States could exceed $ 2,6 trillion, which is about 15% of the country's annual GDP.

Scientists believe that such an outbreak will harm the Internet around the world. A massive flash can damage fiber optics, shutting off the internet almost everywhere. This means that any type of communication via the Internet will be terminated before the restoration of work.

“The pandemic has shown that the world is completely unprepared for emergency situations. We didn't have any plan. The situation is the same with geomagnetic storms and Internet outages, experts say. “Our infrastructure is completely unprepared for such solar phenomena. We have a very limited understanding of the potential damage."

Some users will definitely lose touch with giants like Google and Facebook. Also, a strong flash can damage the satellites that transmit GPS data and serve as a navigation system, as well as interfere with the operation of electrical appliances.

At the same time, a strong solar storm can affect the planet for 10 years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its National Weather Service (NWS) are generally known for their weather forecasts, but are also responsible for “space weather”. While there are private companies and other agencies that track and forecast space weather, the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is the official source of space environment warnings. The SWPC is located in Boulder, Colorado and is the service center for the NWS, which is part of NOAA.

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