The article tells about what a magnetic storm is, what space activity it causes and how it can be dangerous for people.
Space
We are surrounded by endless empty space, where only occasionally clusters of planets or stars are found. And the latter, by the way, since ancient times have riveted human attention to themselves and even helped, as was the case with the North Star or the Milky Way, which was used by s alt merchants.
And people almost every day see what we owe our lives to. This is the Sun. If it were a little brighter, larger, or our planet would be outside the conditional habitable belt, perhaps life on Earth would never have arisen. In addition to heating the Earth, the Sun can also be fraught with dangers. And this is not heat or sunburn, but real storms. A magnetic storm is a phenomenon that occurs as a result of solar activity. It gives rise to such a phenomenon as space weather. But first things first. So what is it and how can such storms be dangerous for people and equipment?
Solar wind
If we use scientific classification, then a magnetic storm is a disturbance of the geomagnetic fieldEarth, which lasts from several hours to several days. Such phenomena occur as a result of solar activity, when the solar wind interacts with the geomagnetic field of our planet. And as a result of the manifestation and amplification of ring currents, which are constantly present in the radiation belts of the planet, certain phenomena occur on the surface that affect both electronic devices and the physical well-being of people. So a magnetic storm is a phenomenon that, although invisible from the outside, has an impact on the world around us.
To put it more simply, at certain moments the activity of a nuclear reaction in the sun increases, plasma ejections occur, which reach the Earth, where its magnetic field and ring currents amplify.
Intensity
Scientists have long noticed that such cosmic phenomena occur with different intensity. It depends on the 11-year cycle of solar activity. So, if the average number of storms per year is about 30, then during the maximum activity of our star, their number increases to 50. As it has already become clear, they are quite frequent, so it cannot be said that every magnetic storm is something supernatural and creepy dangerous. According to scientists, with an average life expectancy of 75 years, a person spends 15 of them during times of such solar activity.
If we talk about the perturbation of the magnetic field near the surface of ourplanet, then during storms it increases insignificantly, by only 1% of the constant norm.
Danger
Really dangerous events of this kind occur very rarely, about once every 500 years. And in ancient times, they passed almost without a trace, since then there was no thin and ordinary electronics, on which all this could be reflected. The last such event occurred in 1859 and was called the "Solar Superstorm". The coronal mass ejection was so large and strong that it reached the Earth in just 18 hours, although this usually takes several days. This day of the magnetic storm went down in history as the largest geomagnetic phenomenon. At that time, most of the developed countries were already actively using the telegraph, and as a result of the storm, all stations were out of order, and the northern lights could be observed around the world.
There were similar incidents in 1921 and 1960, but the storms then were much less intense, and there was heavy interference or radio failure around the world.
The same can happen in our time, when electronics are used everywhere, especially those that do not like strong magnetic disturbances and use wireless communication. And if the space storm is particularly strong, then there is a chance that most of the electronics will fail.
Magnetic storm schedule
With the development of the near-space space of the Earth and the launch of satellites with telescopes into orbit, it became possible to predict such phenomena. Basically they are divided into 7-day, 2-day and 1-hourforecasts. The accuracy of the first two is 30% and 50%, and the last one is 95%. Many online news and weather outlets provide this kind of information for weather-sensitive people.
Influence on us
Magnetic storms really affect people's well-being. Back in 1928, academician Chizhevsky drew attention to the fact that during periods of such activity, a person develops some symptoms, which are expressed in general malaise, headache, increase or decrease in blood pressure, mood deterioration, and so on. By the way, some people can react to storms a few days before they start, in fact, predicting the moments of coronal mass ejection from the surface of the sun. But fortunately, such phenomena in themselves do not lead to deaths.
