2024 Author: Adelina Croftoon | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 02:07
The magnetic storm that raged on Earth on Saturday and caused by an extreme solar flare is abating. It reached a record strength of 7-8 points; a more powerful storm was observed only on October 29, 2003. This was announced by Sergei Gaidash, head of the Space Weather Center of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation named after N. V. Pushkov.
"The extreme solar flare X9.3, which occurred on the evening of September 6, caused the ejection of solar matter. The sprayed solar plasma reached the Earth, flattened the Earth's magnetosphere and caused a very large magnetic storm," the source said. According to him, the maximum of the magnetic storm fell at 3:00 Moscow time on September 9, after which it began to gradually subside, as the group of sunspots approached the edge of the Sun's disk and would soon leave the line of sight from the Earth.
"The magnetic storm in Russia reached 7 points, in the United States it was one point more powerful, 8 points. The storm was very large, but not extreme," the expert said.
Magnetic storms began on Earth on September 6, when the first ejections of solar plasma reached the Earth, following a series of solar flares. A series of solar flares began on September 4.
First, there were five small M-class flares of magnitude 4-5, then an X-class flare of 2.2 magnitude followed on September 6, and an extremely strong X9.3 flare occurred on the same day. During the night and day of September 7, four M-class flares with a power of 2, 5, 1, 2, 2 and 7, 4 points were recorded, and on September 8, an M8.1 flare was recorded, and an X1.3 flare.
The storms followed the flares, repeating their strength. “Our forecast of the start time of the big storm caused by the X9.3 extreme outbreak came true both in terms of time and strength,” said Sergei Gaidash. The next act of the cosmic "play" was the aurora caused by magnetic storms. They were observed by residents of Pechora and Ukhta in Russia, who posted images in social networks in the form of a crown, as well as residents of Ohio and Indiana (USA).
Consequences of outbreaks and storms
An extremely powerful outbreak, X9.3, caused a short-term deterioration in radio communications in Europe and America. The magnetic storm generated by it did not lead to any serious anomalies. According to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in St. Petersburg and the press service of the city ambulance, no bursts of accidents or morbidity were recorded during the period of solar flares and magnetic storms.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense reported that an extreme solar flare did not affect the Russian orbital group and ground control systems for spacecraft of the Russian Space Forces. The ministry added that the duty forces of the ground-based automated control complex perform communications and control sessions of the spacecraft of the Russian orbital group in normal mode.
Sergei Gaidash considers it a fortunate coincidence that a long series of flares began with flares of medium strength.
“We managed to warn all the services responsible for the safety of space technology and other complex equipment. By the time of the extreme outbreak, all necessary precautions had already been taken,” he said. Sergei Gaidash noted that forecasts of solar flares are very difficult from a scientific point of view, since there are unexpected combinations of factors, and also because these phenomena have not yet been sufficiently studied.
Consequences for living organisms
During a series of outbreaks, St. Petersburg hirudotherapists (leech therapy) noticed a special behavior of leeches. "Leeches are excellent living barometers. They react to pressure drops, to geomagnetic disturbances. They rebel, be capricious, do not want to stick to the human body," said the agency's interlocutor.
Scientists have already proven the influence of solar activity on the navigation ability of birds and bees. A group of German scientists put forward a hypothesis about the influence of solar flares on the behavior of whales. Researchers from the Universities of Kiel and Cologne, who studied the death of almost three dozen sperm whales that were carried to the North Sea coast in early 2016, suggested that solar flares may be the reason that whales are washed ashore and die.
In flares on the Sun, the Earth's magnetic field is greatly distorted, as a result of which whales can begin to swim in the wrong direction and get into shallow water or be washed ashore, the researchers said, realizing the difficulty of collecting evidence for this theory.
Polar lights
The most beautiful sign of solar flares and magnetic storms are auroras in high, and sometimes, during strong storms, and in mid-latitudes. During flares on October 29, 2003, the aurora was observed at the latitude of Moscow. The current series, according to preliminary data, did not lead to the widespread observation of the aurora in average orphans.
History knows only one case when the aurora was observed in the tropics.
"He was seen by the English navigator James Cook when crossing the tropic," said Sergei Gaidash.
Service of the Sun
According to Yuri Nagovitsyn, head of the department of solar physics at the Pulkovo Main Astronomical Observatory, the Soviet Union had the best solar service in the world, including 20 ground tracking stations. Now the main stream of information about the state of our star comes from space stations, mainly American ones.
Therefore, in 2014, the Pulkovo Observatory undertook to revive the service of the Sun, which includes eight identical telescopes, placed along the meridians so that the Sun was in the field of view of scientists around the clock. This will make it possible to predict solar flares that can affect the operation of power systems, pipelines, computer and aviation technology, and human health.
However, the project has not yet received budgetary funding, and the observatory has focused on extra-budgetary sources and the use of different-caliber telescopes already in operation. According to Yuri Nagovitsyn, the first algorithms have already been written that are aimed at predicting space weather.
They want to place the data collection center of the Sun service at the Pulkovo Observatory. The service of the Sun, according to Yuri Nagovitsyn, will provide a round-the-clock solar patrol, and it requires much less, an order of magnitude lower, financial costs than when creating orbiting telescopes.
Solar flares mechanism
Even Aristotle observed solar flares through smoky glass. The history of astronomy entered a powerful flash on September 1, 1859, when two English astronomers - Carrington and Hodgson - independently observing the Sun in white light, saw how something like lightning flashed suddenly among a group of sunspots. Following this outbreak, a geomagnetic storm broke out, which led to the failure of telegraph systems in Europe and the United States.
Currently, flares are classified into several types, depending on the intensity of the X-ray radiation at the peak: the most powerful are classified as class X, the less powerful are indicated by the letter indices M, C, B or A, in descending order.
A series of flares in September 2017 began when a large group of sunspots appeared directly opposite the Earth.
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