Start planning my 2024 Early this morning (05:55 Beijing time on January 1, 2024), the sun erupted with a strong flare (x5.Level 0). It was the largest flare eruption event on the Sun's surface since 2017 and the culmination of Solar Week 24. Solar flares are the most violent eruptions in the local area of the solar atmosphere, which can release energy equivalent to billions of megaton hydrogen bombs, resulting in a sudden increase in solar radiation intensity and a significant impact on the Earth's space environment. So, what is the impact of this solar flare eruption on Earth?And how do we deal with it?
The impact of solar flare eruptions on the Earth.
After the eruption of a solar flare, it is often accompanied by coronal mass ejection activity, which will eject a large number of high-energy particles and magnetic fields outward, forming solar storms. When a solar storm reaches the vicinity of the Earth, it interacts with the Earth's magnetic field and causes a series of changes in the Earth's space, which is what we often call space weather. The main manifestations of space weather are as follows:
Effects on the Earth's atmosphere. When a solar flare erupts, with the rapid increase of solar radiation intensity, the ionization process in the atmosphere is significantly enhanced, resulting in a rapid increase in the electron density of the ionospheric 60 1000 km above the earth, and causing ionospheric disturbances, resulting in the sudden attenuation or even disappearance of high-frequency radio waves, affecting the signal transmission and positioning accuracy of broadcasting, radio, navigation and other systems. In addition, solar flares can also heat neutral gases, increasing the density and drag of the atmosphere at the altitude of low-Earth orbit spacecraft, making the spacecraft need to consume more fuel to maintain a given orbit, thus affecting its working life.
Effect on the Earth's magnetic field. When a solar storm arrives near the Earth, it interacts with the Earth's magnetic field, causing a sudden change in the Earth's magnetic field, causing a magnetic storm. Magnetic storms can cause interference or damage to the power system, pipeline system, communication system, etc. on the earth, and even cause large-scale power outages. Magnetic storms can also affect the navigation ability of animals on Earth, such as birds, fish, etc., causing them to become disoriented.
Impact on the Earth's polar regions. When a solar storm arrives near the Earth, it brings a portion of the energetic particles into the Earth's magnetosphere, where these particles move along the magnetic field lines to the poles and collide with atmospheric molecules to produce auroras. Auroras are a beautiful phenomenon of space weather, but they can also cause interference with radio communications and radar detection in the polar regions.
How do we deal with solar flares?
The impact of solar flare eruptions on the earth is inevitable, but we can reduce the harm caused by them as much as possible through science, monitoring and early warning. At present, China has established a set of space weather monitoring and early warning systems, including ground observation stations, satellite platforms, data centers and forecasting centers, which can monitor solar activities and changes in the earth's space environment in real time, release forecast and early warning information in a timely manner, and provide services to relevant departments and the public. In addition, we should also strengthen scientific research on space weather, deeply reveal the coupling mechanism between solar activity and the Earth's space environment, improve the ability and accuracy of space weather, and provide guarantee for human space activities.
In short, in the early hours of this morning, a strong flare erupted from the sun, which is a normal phenomenon of solar activity and an intimate interaction between the sun and the earth. We should look at this phenomenon from a scientific perspective, neither panic excessively nor take it lightly, but actively respond to it and protect our planet.