Scientists Create Early Warning System for Solar Storms
17 Jul 2012Led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency tasked with monitoring atmospheric and oceanic conditions, and sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a global panel of experts has predicted that the next solar cycle — Solar Cycle 24 — will peak in 2013. Specifically, in May of next year.
What does this mean? An increase in sun activity will likely set off a magnificent aurora borealis — otherwise known as northern lights –, but it may also increase radiation and impact the electricity grid, radio bursts and jams, and the satellites that GPS tracking and navigation depend upon. As solar activity passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, it can causes distorted GPS signals and accuracy errors.
“A variety of applications of GPS technology — such as managing cellular telephone signals and tracking planes in the air — could be affected, said Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing,” reports The Baltimore Sun.
To this end, a team of scientists from three universities have created a system that can forecast radiation from solar storms in advance, allowing pilots and air traffic controllers, for example, to prepare for solar storms.
“Traveling nearly at the speed of light, it takes just 10 minutes for the first particles ejected from a solar storm to reach earth,” said Prof John Bieber, scientist at the University of Delaware, in a statement. “These sun storms can cover thousands of miles on the sun, like a wave of exploding hydrogen bombs.”
University of Delaware scientists, along with scientists from Korean-based Chungnam National University and Hanyang University analyzed data collected at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station from two neutron monitors — one inside and one outside. The neutron monitors can determine the intensity of fast-moving, high-intensity particles as they initially hit earth from a solar storm.
While these initial fast-moving particles can carry over 500 million electron volts, experts claim that the first-to-arrive and fast-moving particles are less intense and powerful compared to their slow-moving counterparts. Thus, knowing when the fast-moving particles arrive may prove useful in forecasting when the slow-moving, yet more powerful and dangerous, particles will make their impact.
“These slower-moving particles are more dangerous because there are so many more of them. That’s where the danger lies,” Bieber said.
The system could potentially warn astronauts and air personnel about radiation from solar storms almost three hours in advance, giving them time to take preventative action. “Depending on the protons’ energy, the system provides a warning time up to 166 minutes. That would give astronauts on deep space flights time to seek out an armoured area in their spacecraft,” Bieber concluded.
More information about the early solar storm warning system can be found in the journal Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications.
Comments are closed.