The danger behind the aurora beauty of solar storms

Normally, tourists have to spend a large amount of money and have to endure cold weather to have the opportunity to admire the aurora borealis, but over the weekend, many people in many parts of the world just needed to look up at the sky. were able to watch colorful light shows.

The strongest solar storm (geomagnetic storm) in the past 2 decades suddenly attacked Earth on May 10, creating spectacular aurora images with many colors, from pink, green, purple, over Mexico, Southern Europe and South Africa. However, contrary to the excitement and enjoyment of the people, those responsible for protecting the Earth from the impact of strong solar storms are worried that there is a threat hiding behind the wonderful colors. that is nice. 

Beautiful aurora image in Palencia, Spain created after the strongest solar storm in 20 years. Photo cut from video broadcast by Reuters news agency on May 12, 2024.

Mr. Quentin Verspieren, space safety program coordinator of the European Space Agency, emphasized: 'We need to understand that behind this beauty lies danger' .

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Mike Bettwy, of the US Space Weather Prediction Center, said scientists are focusing on the more dangerous potential effects of solar storms, including destroy power grids and satellites, or expose astronauts to dangerous levels of radiation.

The latest auroras were caused by the strongest solar storm since October 2003's "Halloween Storm," which caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged electrical infrastructure in South Africa. According to Mr. Bettwy, although this latest solar storm appears to cause less damage than previous solar storms, it usually takes several weeks to fully assess the impact.

In fact, solar storms like the recent one generate electromagnetic voltages and currents, which can overload devices like satellites and power grids. For example, the worst solar storm in history occurred in 1859, known as the Carrington Event, which caused power stations and many equipment to catch fire.

According to scientists, although countries have now stepped up improvements to their power networks to prevent prolonged power outages like in Sweden in 2003 or Canada in 1989, but to cope with solar storms, The weather is coming, people need to prepare emergency equipment to prevent power outages, as well as water in case water plants stop working.

A solar storm is an explosion of energy on the surface of the Sun. They appear due to the release of the Sun's magnetic field - the network of magnetic field lines surrounding the Sun. These magnetic field lines are often created by plasma flows on the Sun's surface. When these plasma streams collide with each other, they can release large amounts of energy, causing solar storms.