Fergie's Tech Blog

ESA: Radio 'Screams' From the Sun Warn of Radiation Storms

Via ESA News.

ESA’s SOHO has helped uncover radio screams that foretell dangerous Coronal Mass Ejections, or CMEs, which produce radiation storms harming infrastructure on ground, in space as well as humans in space.

Scientists made the connection by analyzing observations of CMEs from ESA/NASA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) and NASA’s Wind spacecraft. The team includes researchers from Goddard, the Catholic University of America, Washington, the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, and the Observatory of Paris.

A CME is a solar slam to our high-tech civilization. It begins when the sun launches a thousand million tons of electrically conducting gas (plasma) into space at millions of kilometres per hour.

A CME cloud is laced with magnetic fields and when directed our way, smashes into Earth's magnetic field. If the magnetic fields have the correct orientation, they dump energy into Earth's magnetic field, causing magnetic storms. These storms can cause widespread blackouts by overloading power line equipment with extra electric current.

posted by Fergie @ 5/29/2007 05:44:00 PM