What you need to know about the activities of the sun

As scientists now report, the Sun emitted the strongest X-class massive flare from point AR 3354 on Sunday, July 2, causing a radio blackout over the western United States and the Pacific Ocean on July 4. Fortunately, it was short-lived: astronomers did not record the coronal mass ejection that usually accompanies such events, ejecting streams of plasma into space. There will be more such cases in the future because the number of sunspots has reached its highest level in 21 years, with the June average of 163 sunspots per day.

Such activities are completely normal. Every 11 years the Sun experiences peaks and troughs called solar maximum and solar minimum. It is not known exactly what drives these cycles, but we correct them for the number of sunspots. This is because the star’s magnetic field controls the star’s activity, and sunspots are temporary regions where magnetic fields are particularly strong and temperatures are cooler.

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections are caused by the breaking and reconnecting of magnetic field lines, and often this happens exactly where the sunspots are. This causes a burst of energy that unfolds as an explosion. The more sunspots there are on the Sun, the more often these eruptions occur.

The current event is important because of how solar activity can affect us here on Earth, and not just in the form of radio interference. A sufficiently powerful flash can interfere with satellite communications, including navigation. Or it causes surges and blackouts in power grids. It can even disrupt the migratory behavior of animals.

sun and internet

Looking ahead, we can say that the Sun does indeed have the ability to wreak havoc on the internet on Earth. However, it turned out that this is not so easy to do. One giant solar storm is all it takes, says Matthew Owens, a solar physicist at the University of Reading in England. Most likely, it is the failure of electrical networks that the Internet does not work.

Powerful electric currents from the collision of the magnetic field with solar radiation pass through the upper layers of our planet’s atmosphere. But they also penetrate the earth’s crust. This can affect electrical conductors on the surface of the earth’s crust, such as power lines that carry electricity from generating stations to homes and structures. The result is local power outages that can be difficult to fix.

But that’s not enough to crash the internet. The solar storm should interfere with the operation of the ultra-long fiber optic cables that lie under the oceans and connect the continents. Every 50-145 kilometers, these cables are equipped with repeaters that help strengthen the signal as they pass. Cables themselves are not vulnerable to geomagnetic disturbances, but repeaters are sensitive. If one of them fails, it may be enough to knock down the entire cable. If enough wires stand still, an “internet apocalypse” will ensue, disrupting everything from the supply chain to the healthcare system, from the stock market to individuals’ basic working and communication skills. However, the probability of such a scenario is very low.

There are several ways to protect the internet from a giant solar storm. The first is to strengthen power grids, satellites and submarine cables against overload by inrush currents, including installing fuses to strategically shut down grids during a burst of solar activity. The second, cheaper way is to develop a better method for predicting solar storms over the long term.

Are solar storms predictable?

This is very difficult to do. Scientists can roughly pinpoint fluctuations in activity, but it’s not uncommon for the Sun to surprise. The thing is, analysis is done on the basis of huge amounts of variable data that fluctuates all the time, and the technologies that can read all this are still relatively young and flawed.

In general, current technology can predict solar storms two days before they hit Earth, based on sunspot activity. But that’s not the same as watching hurricanes on Earth. Therefore, there is little confidence in such observations.

The sun has been pretty quiet since the ’90s. The twenty-fifth solar cycle (which we observed) is yet to come, but scientists estimate it may be one of the most powerful cycles on record, and we’re definitely heading towards it. Scientists suspect the next maximum could come sooner than 2025. According to some observations, scientists conclude that the future peak may begin at the end of 2023.