In February 2022, the Launch of Starlink suffered a magnetic storm from Earth, losing more than 40 satellites (video screenshot). Source/SpaceX
On February 3, 2022, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched 49 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida via Falcon 9. However, due to the impact of solar storms, magnetic storms occurred in the Earth's magnetosphere, the density of the atmosphere increased, and then the atmospheric resistance increased by 50%, resulting in the failure of these "starlink" satellites to ascend to a safer orbit, and as many as 40 satellites fell into the atmosphere and crashed. This is the largest number of collective satellite losses caused by a single geomagnetic event to date. So who is the sun storm behind this incident? Solar storms have such a great power, why do people on Earth not seem to intuitively feel it? What other impacts does it have on the planet and on humanity? Can we predict solar storms and thus avoid these disasters? Let's talk about these issues one by one.
Part.1
What is the sacred nature of solar storms?
The Northern Song Dynasty literary scholar Fan Zhongyan vividly described two natural phenomena related to the weather on Dongting Lake in the "Record of Yueyang Lou", one is the scene of "spring and Jingming, the waves are not alarming, the sky is bright, and the sky is blue and clear"; the other is the "yin wind and anger, turbid waves emptying" and "business travel is not ok, the trees are destroyed" The image of the rainstorm haze that makes people tremble and tremble. If we look farther away - the earth's middle and upper atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere and even interplanetary space, these humans have begun to frequently step on the "foot" of the solar space, we will find that there is a similar weather here: "spring and Jingming" in calm, mainly for the relatively stable solar radiation and the role of the solar wind; when tyrannical, it is also "tree collapse", and the perpetrator is the solar storm.
The so-called solar storm refers to the response phenomenon generated by solar eruption activity in solar-terrestrial space. Solar eruptive activity is a short-duration, large-scale energy release phenomenon in the solar atmosphere due to electromagnetic interactions, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The magnetized plasma cloud that ejects with the solar eruption activity carries a large amount of energy and magnetic field, which will disturb the solar space environment where the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and middle and upper atmosphere are located, thus forming solar storms. Solar eruptive activity and the response of solar-terrestrial space are inseparable from electromagnetic field interactions, so solar storms are essentially an electromagnetic storm. When a violent solar storm comes, a strong electromagnetic disturbance in solar-Terrestrial space will threaten the lives of modern technological facilities and astronauts located in this airspace.
Bursts of solar activity and the solar wind send large amounts of charged particles outward, and Earth's magnetic field protects the planet from the impact of these particles. Source/NASA
Part.2
The power of solar storms
There are three main forms of matter and energy released during solar flares and coronal mass ejections: electromagnetic radiation, high-energy charged particle streams, and plasma clouds. Due to differences in propagation speeds, the time for them to reach Earth space is not synchronized. First, electromagnetic radiation reaches Earth space at the speed of light (300,000 kilometers per second) (about 150 million kilometers between the sun and the earth), which takes only about 8 minutes; second, the flow of high-energy charged particles (sub-light speed) takes about ten to dozens of minutes; and then, the plasma cloud (hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second) takes about 1 to 4 days to reach the earth, which is figuratively called three rounds of "attacks" by solar storms on the earth.
After a solar storm, the first thing to bear is electromagnetic radiation. During a flare, electromagnetic radiation in all bands suddenly increases, especially in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray bands, where radiation shows hundreds of thousands of times more increased. Thus enabling the electrons outside the nuclear sphere in the earth's upper atmosphere to obtain enough energy to escape the shackles of the atomic nucleus, forming free electrons, that is, increasing the ionization of the ionosphere, causing the ionosphere to be violently disturbed in a short period of time, which in turn leads to short-wave attenuation, short-wave translation, long-wave phase abnormalities and other columns of electromagnetic layer perturbations. Technical equipment that relies on short-wave communication, such as satellite navigation and positioning systems, the accuracy of which decreases, and in severe cases, even causes the navigation receiver to fail and cannot provide navigation information; the signal-to-noise ratio of satellite communication will also decrease, the bit error rate will rise, the quality of communication will decrease, and in severe cases, satellite communication links may be interrupted.
High-energy charged particles then reach near Earth, causing the density of electrons in the polar ionosphere to increase. Due to the extremely high energy, it will directly bombard the spacecraft, penetrate the satellite shell, cause the logic error of the microelectronic device of the satellite platform and the payload it carries, cause program confusion, and may cause short circuit and breakdown inside the device when severe; it may also cause material performance degradation, increased noise in the imaging system, and reduced solar cell efficiency. At the same time, high-energy charged particles may also cause radiation damage to astronauts.
Finally, when a cloud of magnetized plasma carried by solar eruptions during a third attack on Earth reaches the vicinity of Earth, it interacts with earth's magnetic field, injecting energy into the magnetosphere, ionosphere, and Earth's upper atmosphere. Drastic changes in the Earth's magnetic field induce geomagnetic induction currents on the Earth's surface, and this additional current can damage or burn down transformers in the power grid, causing power outages. As a result of solar storms, the illuminated city will turn pitch black in 90 seconds, the so-called "90 second disaster". In addition, geomagnetic induction currents may also corrode long-distance pipeline systems, causing leaks and affecting the normal operation of pipeline systems such as petroleum and cables.
A solar eruption was filmed on May 3, 2013. Copyright/NASA/SDO
Fortunately, due to the double protection of the earth's magnetosphere and the dense atmosphere, these three rounds of attacks have been basically defused, which is why it is difficult for us to intuitively feel the arrival of solar storms without the help of instruments and equipment. Of course, in recent years, there have also been some statistical studies that point out that there is a certain correlation between solar storms and the incidence of some infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases. However, there is no scientific conclusion about how much solar storms will affect human health, and what the mechanism of the impact is. In general, there are roughly 10 major areas affected by solar storms: spacecraft safety, aerospace and aviation activity safety, communications, navigation and positioning, national defense, geological exploration, long-distance pipe network systems, meteorological operations and research, biology and other electromagnetic-related fields.
Part.3
epilogue
The development of modern science and technology has allowed human beings and their technological equipment to leave the earth, touch the starry sky, and explore the mysteries of the universe on the one hand; on the other hand, the threat posed by solar storms is also increasingly serious. Understanding the characteristics and laws of solar storm occurrence and making predictions is the first guarantee for human beings to enter and exit the earth safely and go to outer space.
On April 20, the activity area of the Sunspot Group AR2993-2995 was tracked and compared with the size of the Earth. Photography / Liu Ning
Source: National Astronomical State of China
Author: Zhang Yuzong Zhou Guiping
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