2024-05-11 18:11
Source: China.com
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The last two days of intense eruptive activity on the Sun are the most frequent X-class flares in the Sun's last 20 years. The occurrence of geomagnetic storms may affect space and communication activities. Specifically, it may be that the navigation is "lost" and "deaf", unable to obtain signals, and satellites cannot communicate with the ground, just like a "kite with a broken string" "wandering" in space; The "eye of the sky" that patrols the earth is temporarily "blind"; Terrestrial broadcasts and stations that use shortwave communications will also "lose their voices......
The causes of these phenomena are related to the sun's "sneezing", which is commonly known as solar activity, which is caused by electromagnetic processes in the sun's atmosphere, mainly sunspots, light spots, spectral spots, flares, solar and coronal transient events.
Of these, solar flares are one of the most intense solar activities. It is manifested as the sudden appearance of rapidly developing bright spots on the surface of the sun, and its lifespan is only between a few minutes and tens of minutes. Although its "lifespan" is extremely short, its "explosive power" is extremely strong, and the energy released is equivalent to the total energy of 100,000 or even a million strong volcanic eruptions, or equivalent to the explosion of tens of billions of hundred-ton hydrogen bombs.
A flare is like a "sneeze" from the sun, and although the sun is far away from the earth, the earth may also "catch a cold". This is because solar activity will emit strong electromagnetic radiation, high-energy particle flow plasma clouds and other "irritable molecules", but also carry the sun's strong magnetic field, they pass through interstellar space to reach the sun-earth space, the earth is like being pushed by an invisible hand, thus causing a strong disturbance of the earth's space environment, causing changes in the direction and magnitude of the geomagnetic field, that is, geomagnetic storms, which may lead to the failure of satellites, short-wave, radar and other equipment to cause derivative catastrophic impacts.
But don't worry too much, on the one hand, we have the Earth's own "gas mask" - magnetic field protection, which helps block most of the high-energy particle flow from solar eruptions.
On the other hand, we also have a powerful technological "body protector".
Radio wave environmental information service guarantee platform
Relying on the only domestic network of radio environment observation stations, China Electronics Technology 22 has set up 84 sets of observation equipment, which are respectively deployed in 21 observation stations in the north and south of the motherland, like a pair of "clairvoyance", woven into a network of radio environment observation stations that continuously monitor space trends and ionospheric changes, equipped with ionospheric vertical detectors, ionospheric oblique detectors and signal scintillators and other equipment, always monitoring the "weather changes" of the ionosphere.
Kunming Radio Wave Observatory
"Each station begins to encrypt observations!" After receiving the warning of solar flares, technicians from 21 radio observation stations distributed in the north and south of the motherland began to make close observations. "The observation stations moved on to measure a set of data every five minutes, instead of measuring a set of data every hour." Sun Shuji, director of the Radio Environment Monitoring and Forecasting Center, said that based on past experience, solar activity generally lasts for 20-30 minutes before the index declines. However, the crypto observation has been non-stop for the past few days, and there is no sign of stopping at all. 1 hour passed, 2 hours passed, and the solar flare continued......
"As long as the flare index does not decrease, it may trigger ionospheric absorption, resulting in an abnormal usable frequency of related electronic information equipment." Technicians dare not relax, always keeping an eye on each new observation of the ionization map, accurately measuring each set of data. Pay close attention to the data transmitted by each observation station, track and analyze the ionospheric disturbance situation, and organize the staff on duty to consult and analyze in a timely manner...... With the efforts of the team members, they captured the ionospheric disturbance data as soon as possible, sent alerts to users in a timely manner, and provided timely support for effectively responding to the effects of ionospheric disturbances.
Researchers from the Radio Environment Monitoring and Forecasting Center are analyzing the observation data.
"We have accumulated 80 years of radio environment observation data and built a radio environment monitoring and forecasting center." Sun Shuji said that through the analysis of the observed data, the team members formed a current and short-term forecast of the ionospheric situation, monitored the impact of sudden ionospheric disturbance and ionospheric burst events on relevant systems in different regions in real time, and provided timely and effective ionospheric environmental warning information for related fields. At the same time, for ionospheric storms, aurora absorption and polar cap absorption, the forecast center can make short-term warnings, give environmental situation analysis and response strategies in the shortest possible time, and replan the radio system tasks that are vulnerable to solar storms, so as to reduce the risk caused by solar storms.
It is believed that with these high-tech observation stations, the impact of solar activity on us will also be minimized.
(Text/Wang Xuejiao)