Earth was hit by an X-class Solar storm and communications were interrupted for an hour. The incident, which took place in parts of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, resulted in a blackout of communications and electricity. The cause of the event was that the explosion in the Sun hurled a plasma wave with charged particles into space. When the plasma flow interacts with the magnetic field that surrounds our planet like a shield, it gets the name “Solar storm”.
Explosions on the Sun have been increasing lately. This causes the Earth to be exposed to plasma streams more frequently. Scientists state that the explosions in the star will increase and reach its peak in a few years. This is because the Sun is currently in an active period. It is said that the effects of the violent explosions expected to occur on the Sun, especially around 2025, are now inevitable.
Scientists categorized the experienced Solar storm as “X class”, which represents the strongest eruptions. Solar flares are divided into five categories, A, B, C, M, and X, according to the intensity of the X-rays they emit, and are 10 times more powerful at each level than the previous one. After X-class explosions, particles interacting with Earth’s magnetic field cause aurora at northern latitudes. While this event offers unmatched natural beauty, it can also damage navigation, GPS and communication systems, hindering their operation.
What is a Solar Storm?
Earth, with its atmosphere and magnetism, acts as a protective shield against solar activity, which is a natural phenomenon. Solar activities are dark regions that form temporarily on the sun’s surface. After these regions, solar eruptions and “Coronal mass ejections” occur. The sun ejects very massive plasmas during these events. Plasma is known as the fourth state of matter. That is, in addition to solid, liquid and gaseous states, there is also a plasma state. These plasmas are constantly thrown from the sun in all directions, and sometimes they come in the direction of the earth.
Every 11 years the Sun completes its calm or stormy cycle and begins a new cycle. It is known that in 2019 the Sun entered its 25th cycle. The periods that pass through these cycles are called “solar minimum”. During these periods, the explosions and spots on the star are reduced to a minimum. The periods when sunspots increase and explosions become more frequent are called “solar maximum”. In 2025, the Sun’s solar maximum phase will reach its zenith. Therefore, scientists expect particularly violent eruptions around 2025 to affect the Earth.
The phenomenon of increasing and decreasing solar activities has been recorded since the 1700s. A total of 24 solar cycles have been recorded to date. All activity data of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are available. According to these data, the cycles regularly increase and decrease like a pendulum. In addition, there is an 88-year cycle and very severe solar storms occur within these cycles. The Carrington Event, recorded as the strongest solar storm alongside the three-day storm that has occurred in the last century, occurred in 1859. During this event, auroras were observed at the poles and from Sweden to New York. Auroras have even been seen in areas close to the equator.
Effects of Solar Storm
The new cycle the sun enters will reach its maximum in July 2025. Although it is not known exactly when solar storms will occur, the probabilities are quite high for these periods. According to studies, the eruption will probably take place in July 2025. As a result of this situation, which occurs once in a century, there may be a big problem in communication.
About 100 years ago; In May 1921, multiple fires broke out simultaneously in electrical and telegraph control rooms around the world. Employees at the Karlstad Exchange in Sweden, after smelling a faint smell of smoke, realized that the electric vehicles were not working and discovered that a fire had broken out that severely damaged their equipment. Another fire that started at a switchboard at Brewster station in New York soon destroyed the entire building. Reports of similar problems have surfaced in different parts of the world, such as India, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, with electrical and telegraph wires, which were just emerging at the time.
It is said that the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, were seen in the skies of New York before this event. This is quite interesting, because the Aurora Borealis is a natural phenomenon seen near the polar regions. These radiations occur when charged particles from the Sun enter the Earth’s magnetic field. These particles are carried by the solar winds.
The strongest solar storm in history, known as the Carrington Event, which occurred in 1859, occurred during solar cycle 10. This storm is considered an important event that is still remembered even today, creating a strong geomagnetic effect. Explaining the effects of the storm, experts state that the energy caused by the explosions is emitted as X-rays or ultraviolet rays.
Some violent explosions may also put the lives of astronauts on board the orbiting International Space Station at risk. Therefore, solar storms and eruptions are an important risk factor for human activities in space. In the last 30 years, the era of modern technology and widespread use of the internet has coincided with the cycles of low and weak solar activity. For this reason, it cannot be predicted exactly what will happen when modern technology encounters a strong solar storm.
