Scientists from Skoltech and colleagues from the University of Graz & the Kanzelhöhe Observatory (Austria), Hvar Observatory (Croatia), and the Belgian Solar-Terrestrial Center of Excellence — SILSO, Royal Observatory of Belgium have introduced a new way to predict the energy of the 11-year solar cycle. The results are essential in anticipating and minimizing the effects of climate change on space, pilots, and modern technological systems both in space and on Earth. The study will be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The Sun is a powerful explosive device that can affect space and modern technology in space and on Earth. In the early 17th century, Galileo Galilei directed his telescope to the Sun and detected the Sun’s rays. By the 19th century, it became apparent that the Sun’s rays appeared and disappeared from time to time, on average, every 11 years. Sunspots are now regularly monitored by more than 80 observatories worldwide. Researchers have compiled sunspot records that lasted for more than four centuries, the most extended scientific experiment in human history.
Sunspots are a visible reflection of powerful magnets rising from the Sun’s rays through its position. Solar-powered magnetic tubes emanate from one solar cell, form a large loop, and then re-enter the surface by another sunspot. Thus, most sunspots come in pairs, which, like magnets, have opposite polarities — one positive and one negative. Free magnetic forces accumulate in these loops and can be released suddenly, for example, by a flame or a plasma discharge.
In a matter of minutes, the solar flare can generate 100,000 times as much energy as any other power plant that produces year-round. Light from the fire reaches the Earth within eight minutes; Earth’s dense atmosphere absorbs the harmful rays of fire, protecting life beyond. But this takes your toll; radio and GPS communications can be disrupted. For example, in November 2015 in Sweden, planes disappeared from radar due to solar panels. And when the Sun is in the storm, airlines are forced to cancel flights on poles because there is no radio communication during storms. Usually, just after a fire breaks out, plasma clouds are released from the solar corona and thrown into space. Coronal mass ejections, giant bubbles, and billions of magnetic plasma stretch rapidly out of the Sun and could hit the Earth in a few days if their orbits were cut off. This is how the Sun conveys its shape to our planet — a geomagnetic storm emerges, and aurora borealis emerges.
