Solar Storms

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Space

What are solar storms?

Just as the sun keeps sending us light and heat, it also throws out a lot of other material in all directions, including towards Earth. In fact, there is a constant stream of charged particles — electrons and protons — that escape from the sun’s atmosphere (corona) and spread across space. This stream is called ‘solar wind’.
Sometimes, a bubble of gas gets burped out of the sun. Imagine it like a bubble escaping from a bucket of soap water. This bubble, typically containing billions of tonnes of matter, ploughs through the solar wind and travels in a random direction at a speed of several million kilometres per hour. Such a bubble that has cut loose from the sun’s corona is called ‘coronal mass ejection’ (CME) or ‘solar storm’.

Why do they happen?

The sun is spinning fast and this spin creates complex swirls and eddies. Sometimes matter gets engulfed in loops of the magnetic field, which gets ejected violently.

Earth’s Magnetic Field:

Earth is protected from the solar wind by our magnetic field- magnetosphere, which deflects the particles away.
The magnetic field, on the sun-facing side of Earth, extends to about 65,000 km, well within the range of Earth’s satellites. (Actually, the magnetic field on the day side gets compressed to 65,000 km by the solar winds; on the night side, the magnetosphere is much bigger.)

Impact of solar storms:

Occasionally, a large solar storm might cut loose and hurl towards Earth. Some satellites could be lost.As for Earth-based systems, such as power grids and telecom networks, even if a big CME hits, only countries in the upper and lower latitudes are in danger of getting affected. Being near the equator, India is relatively safe.