Sunspots and Sun Storms - Essay Example

Sunspots and Sun storms For the life on Earth to exist, the sun’s energy is needed. Solar flares and sunspots ever so often, occur on the sun’s surface and as such can cause unforeseen disruptions in people’s lives. The dynamic nature of the sun for hundreds of years has made it a potential area of study, mainly on the solar flares and sunspot phenomena. On the photosphere or the surface of the sun, a sunspot can be described as a region that is temporarily dark and cool compared to its other environs. Galileo is described as the first person to have studied the dark spots in the sun which measures approximately 10, 000 kilometers across and makes them on the order of the earth. Sunspots occur in groups and appear and disappear at certain times. The sun could have hundreds of them sometimes and at other times only have a few. A sunspot can last between one and a hundred days. When they appear as a group, the sunspots can last approximately 50 days. Compared to the average surface temperature of the sun 6000º Celsius, the sunspots are about 1500º Celsius and can last from a few hours to a few months. In diameter, the sunspots can be as large as 80,000 km and as they move across the sun’s surface, they expand and contract. They can be explained as regions on the sun with strong magnetic field strengths that appear often in pairs that are aligned in an east to west direction and are thousands of times stronger if compared to the magnetic field of Earth. This implies that the rising magnetic tubes flux that breaks past the sun’s surface form the sunspots. In a simulation of the initial condition shows that there is a horizontal uniform layer of magnetic field, in a stably stratified fluid, that is subject to a small perturbation. One of the factors that causes sunspots is intense magnetic fields such that sunspots occur in pairs and the magnetic field comes from one and enters into another one. The magnetic fileds that are inside the sunspots are 1000 times stronger compared to those surrounding the undisturbed areas. The magnetic layer is unstable due to its buoyant nature, so out of its layers the magnetic flux can rise. The center of a sunspot, mainly the dark spot is called the umbra; the magnetic fields are highest in this area. The striated area around the umbra, which is less dark, is called the penumbra. As seen from earth, it takes the sunspots 27 days to make a complete rotation, since they rotate with the solar surface. Near the Sun's equator sunspots rotate at a faster rate than those near the solar poles. Sunspots are storms on the sun that form in groups about 10 solar degrees apart. The electricity that emits from the storms is estimated to equal what can be used in the U.S for the next million years (Riswadkar and Dobbins 14). Sunspots affect the earth through auroral activity in the sense that they create magnetic storms. They have the ability to initiate the swelling of the upper atmosphere which makes satellites to suffer from a reduced orbit height. The sunspots also increase the outflow of matter from the sun that comes in form of solar wind. When charged particles in solar wind comes in contact with atoms in the upper atmosphere, they can interfere with communication systems in the earth. The operation of satellites is also impaired through the introduction of background static. These are the effects of sunspots to the earth. A solar storm on the other hand can be described as an event where the Earth’s magnetic fields are interfered with by the suns activity. Events such as coronal mass ejections and solar flares are what cause the solar storms. The so called solar wind are generated from these events, where by a gust of charged particles or solar winds, if they happen to be traveling in the direction of Earth, can in hours slam into the Earth's magnetic field. In addition, as such geomagnetic storms erupt, due to the collisions a light show can be generated that under the right conditions can last for several days. These flares last only minutes but can cause radiation and intense heat to hit earth, with the power of 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 hydrogen bombs. When a sun storm happens, the solar flare is accompanied by a burst of electromagnetic radiation that has the capability of ionizing the outer atmosphere of the earth once it hits it. This means that GPS satellites are affected but people in the earth would be safe nevertheless. When a flare happens, energetic protons will burst after about 10 to 20 minutes. After a period lasting from 10 to 30 hours, a CME will hit the magnetosphere of the earth and cause electric currents to gush in high tension electricity lines and along oil pipelines. This will obviously cause blackouts because the electricity lines will be affected. The world today is interconnected and this is attributed to the electric connections between people in different regions and countries of the world. therefore, when sun storms happen, human safety and economies will be interfered with. Blasts of electrically charged gases will be occurring without warning and could be dangerous to the lives of people in the world. For example, in 1921, space weather destroyed communications and caused fires in the northeastern part of the U.S. Another problem caused by a sun storm happened in 1989 when a geomagnetic storm hit and collapsed the Hydro-Quebec power grid within a period of 9 seconds (Jha). It can cause airplane and ships magnetic compasses for a short time to spin wildly, and a blackout of communication, in addition in the north and south poles they cause small particles to get in the magnetic fields. They also make auroras, which are multi-colored glows in the sky as they come through the atmosphere. It is known as an aurora borealis in the north, while in the south it is known as the southern lights or the aurora australis. Solar storm concerns revolve around their ability to affect the electrical systems. Electricity grid across a large swath of the world can be instantly knocked out in a severe storm, and this obviously has serious consequences, as it would necessitate for replacements in a large scale. Satellites and communication can also be disrupted by the storms, and this can prove fatal for astronauts if they are caught in the solar wind (McKelvey 1). To the ever-changing nature of the sun economics globally have increasingly became vulnerable. Solar storms can interfere with military communications and high frequency airline, disrupt power grids, and disrupt global positioning system (GPS) signals, blanket the earth’s upper atmosphere with hazardous materials and interrupt civilian communications. From many concerned scientists, there are many warnings saying that electromagnetic space storms from the sun may wipe out television signals and telephone lines leave cities without power supplies and cripple aircraft navigation systems. The introduction of tremendous amounts of radiation is also involved within the solar storm, which for many of the living organisms is considered dangerous. The Earth's magnetic field disruption can also be damaging. An example would be on the way that some animals could become disoriented in a storm since they are highly sensitive to the magnetic fields (Marusek 3). In conclusion, the ability to carefully monitor and observe the sun conditions and in details characterize the solar outbursts nature would allow for the prediction by forecasters that would make; space users, energy providers and radio waves to adjust to the predictions. This is done as to avoid huge losses in the economy and avoid serious infrastructures breakdown. Therefore, with effective warning and alerts, polar flights can be rerouted and power grids can be modified, dangers to technology can be addressed. Forecasters and scientist for a brighter future could closely work with research partners and governments to develop other tools and prediction models to improve services to the space weather community to provide accurate information, that is timely that can be used to move the economy forward and advance the global economy technology. Work cited Jha, Alok. Solar storms: how they are formed and how vulnerable we are. The Guardian. Retrieved March 8, 2012 from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/08/solar-storms-sun-earth Marusek, James A. Solar storm threat analysis. J. Marusek, 2007.2-7 McKelvey, Nigel. "Solar Storm Impacts on Wireless Networks." International Journal of Engineering and Technology 2.4 (2012).1-5 Riswadkar, A. V and Buddy Dobbins. "Solar Storms: Protecting Your Operations Against the Sun's' Dark Side'." 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