What emotions do you experience when you witness the aurora borealis?
Also known as northern or southern lights and emitted light by upper atmosphere particles when they interact with energized particles From the magnetosphere.
It’s a rare and amazing event that only those who live at high latitudes get to experience. It’s an awe-inspiring and otherworldly event that those living at high latitudes can experience often. Cree and Ojibwe teachingsThe northern lights represent ancestral spirits that remain in the skies and continue to communicate.
Scientists believe that the aurora is a complex mixture of elements. ionosphericDynamics is a manifestation Earth’s inherent connection with the sun. For industry, it is a risk factor.
Starlink destruction event
In February 2022 SpaceX has placed 49 Starlink internet satellites (LEO) into low-Earth orbit.. SpaceX’s 36th Starlink Launch was expected to go smoothly, just as the 35 launches before it.
On launch day, a coronal mass ejection – a large burst of plasma expelled from the sun – struck Earth. It caused a Geomagnetic StormStarlink has a target range between 100-500 kilometers altitude.
This event has injected a huge amount of electromagnetic radiation directly into Earth’s upper atmosphere.
This is what it produces beautiful auroral displaysThe energy increased the air density. It’s not a huge deal for LEO satellites to have a higher air density, as it is already very low at the usual operating altitudes.
Starlink however was originally a different company. Launched at an altitude of 210 km. It’s much more dense, and therefore closer to Earth. The dense atmosphere caused atmospheric drag to cause 38 of the 49 satellites launched initially to be lost. They are being pulled back to Earth.
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Surprise solar cycle
The sun undergoes a cycle – an 11-year one, to be exact – from which its activity increases and decreases periodically.
We see more solar flares, more radiation, and more sunspots at the peak of the cycle.
Geomagnetic stormsStarlink’s destruction was a fairly common event, especially as the sun nears the peak in its 11-year cycle.
The previous cycle (the 24th tracked cycles since 1755) ended in 2019. There were 927 storms classified as weak or moderate alone – an average of one every five or so days.
Solar cycle 25 is only four years old, but it has already surprised us.
The 25th cycle’s maximum activity was expected to be in 2025. However, solar activity has already exceeded this. We’ve seen more geomagnetic activity, auroral displays, and more dangerous conditions for LEO satellites.
Space weather – the unseen force of nature
Why are geomagnetic storms so frequent? In reality, they don’t.Satellites burning in the air may have more obvious consequences, but they are not as visible.
The ionospheric structure changes when space weather energy enters the upper atmosphere of Earth, for instance. Radio communication at high frequencies, or “shortwave”, relies on a stable ionosphere in order to reach long distances.
Geomagnetic storms which affect the ionospheric structure can cause Radio blackoutsSuch as a North America will be affected by a disruption on August 7. Even minor thunderstorms can degrade radio signals that are used for military and maritime communication, aviation communication, or ham radio.
Radio blackouts for entire sides of the world can last hours. The nine-hour blackout is a more obvious problem that can be caused by storms of this size. electricity outage experienced by Hydro-Québec in 1989.
Space weather warning systems
There’s more to it than rockets that disintegrate. We can detect when solar flares leave the surface of our sun, and we can roughly predict when they will impact the Earth. This gives us an early warning of certain types of storms. Chances to see the Aurora.
It is hard to predict the storms that occur because of the Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind.
Nowcasting – using real-time data to understand conditions as they occur – is one of our best tools. Satellites and radars are used to measure the magnetic field. We can estimate the energy of the electromagnetic space-weather entering the atmosphere almost instantly.
SpaceX’s loss of satellites in February 20, 2022, during a minor storm geomagnetic, was simply a matter timing. The loss of satellites serves as a stark reminder of just how powerful the universe is.
Daniel BillettPostdoctoral fellow in Space Physics University of Saskatchewan
This article was originally published by The ConversationUnder a Creative Commons License. The Licensed Terms are available here. Original Article.
