Space weather may seem like a story from a galaxy far, far away, but when solar storms hit us on Earth, we are directly affected. These storms are the cause of the northern Lights, for example. They can even lead to temporary disruptions in our communications systems and the electricity grid. Of this solar flareswe can learn so much – and a recent release from NASA tells how one in particular had a brilliant story in 2021. As space agencies continue to send astronauts into our planet’s orbit and begin planning trips even beyond it, ways to monitor solar storms and their impacts will become increasingly important. These storms can harm people, satellites and spacecraft; a 2023 release by the European Space Agency first discussed how timesuch energetic particles were observed simultaneously on the surfaces of the Earth, the Moon and Mars after a solar eruption. This raised important concerns.
‘Space radiation could pose a real danger to our explorations around the world Solar system“Colin Wilson” ExoMars TGO project scientist, shared in the ESA release. “Measurements of high-level radiation events by robotic missions are critical in preparation for long-duration crewed missions.”
In an era when a historic number of satellites and other instruments are roaming the great unknown, NASA’s heliophysics missions use spacecraft to gain a deeper understanding of the room phenomena and tell the stories of what happens after solar events when particles are released into space. a recent article from NASA shares a perfect example of the efforts being made to study the effects of solar storms arising from the light of all lights: The sun. This solar outburst occurred on April 17, 2021, and while these storms are not uncommon, in this particular event the storm was so widespread that six spacecraft in different locations and positions felt the blast.
Related: Powerful solar flare unleashes a colossal plasma plume, causing radio interference in the South Pacific (video)
High speed protons And electronsalso known as solar energetic particles (SEPs), were observed by spacecraft not only between the Sun and the Sun Soilbut as far away as between Earth and Mars!
According to NASA, this was the first time such a thing has happened: we now have a very different perspective on solar storms using data from multiple spacecraft than a single spacecraft that can only provide local insight.
Let’s use a famous Marvel hero as an example: Thor creates a solar storm to wipe out a bunch of bad guys, generating many SEPs that are sent into space. However, he knows that there are enemies on all sides. So he makes sure to turn these SEPs into different balls that can go in all different directions, covering a much larger area than a single beam. With more ‘eyes’ on a single event, we can better understand all the different types of hazards that can arise from one solar storm, which can sometimes pose a threat across a larger playing field.
“SEPs can damage and disrupt our technology, such as satellites GPS,” says Nina Dresing from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Turku in Finland in a statement. “Also, people in space or even in aircraft on polar routes may encounter harmful radiation during strong SEP events.”
Dresing and her team conducted further research following the event to find out where the SEPs came from, how the particles reached dangerous speeds, and when they made contact with each spacecraft. The conclusions were as follows (plotted in the diagram below). Closest to the blast (which took the bluntest blow) was the BepiColombo spacecraft, a joint mission of the European Space Agency And JAXA. BepiColombo is on its way to Mercury. The second hardest hit by particles was NASA’s Parker solar probe, which is extremely close to the sun. That was followed by ESA’s Solar Orbiter. Parker and the Solar orbiter were on either side of the flare when it happened.
A little closer to home, NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, STEREO-A, NASA/ESA Solar and Heliosphere Observatory (SOHO) and NASA’s Wind spacecraft were affected by the event. Finally, the farthest and last spacecraft to detect particles from the explosion were the Mars orbiters: NASA’s MAVEN and ESA’s Mars Express.
By determining the differences in location around the Sun and noting how many electrons and protons were observed by each spacecraft, Dresing and her team were able to paint a much clearer picture of what happened as a result of the Sun’s outburst.
“Multiple sources likely contribute to this event, explaining its wide distribution,” said Georgia de Nolfo, a team member and heliophysics researcher at NASA. Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in the statement. “It also appears that protons and electrons may have come from different sources for this event. This is not the first time people have suspected that electrons and protons may have had different sources for their acceleration; this measurement was unique because the multiple perspectives allowed scientists can better separate the different processes, to confirm that electrons and protons can come from different processes.”
Related stories:
— How to look at the sun safely (and what to look out for)
— Wild solar weather causes satellites to fall. It gets worse.
— Satellites can disappear during major solar storms and it can take weeks to find them
As we know, this won’t be the last time an event like this happens, and the more research we can do, the better we can understand what’s happening to space again, and the more we can gently explore the final frontier. Future studies arising from these results will cover a broader area of other phenomena; they are performed by instruments such as the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC), Sunrise, PUNCHAnd HelioSwarm.
The study was published last year in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.