Kind: captions
Language: en
Even though the solar wind and storms
are hitting Earth all the time, we
usually don't notice them. Thanks to our
planet's strong magnetic shield and
thick atmosphere, most of the harmful
rays and particles the sun emits never
make it to Earth's life friendly
surface.
But most experts believe it's only a
matter of time before a huge solar storm
overwhelms Earth's natural defenses.
After all, it's happened before.
In 1859,
newspapers in the US reported widespread
aurora sightings, some so strong they
turned night into day.
Based on these accounts and other
evidence, scientists believe that
back-to-back storms gave Earth the
biggest solar blast ever recorded.
The storms created huge variations in
Earth's magnetic field, inducing
currents in telegraph lines so strong
they burned operators and started fires
in offices.
So, what would happen if a similar storm
hit us today? With societies so reliant
on modern technology, the damage would
be far worse. Blown transformers could
take months to repair, leaving millions
without electricity. And the damage
would not be limited to our power grid.
More and more we rely on technology that
could be affected by the sun. Global
positioning satellites, long-d
distanceance communications,
airplane tracking, astronauts in space.
Roger. How does it look? So there's an
urgency in understanding what it is that
the sun is doing, what's it going to do
next, and how can we prepare for that
and respond to it.
There's nothing we can do to prevent
huge storms from happening. But if we
can get better at predicting and
spotting them, we'll buy time to take
preventative measures and reduce the
amount of damage they create. So will we
be able to predict when the next mega
storm will come?
No.
Maybe.
No. Maybe.
No.
Maybe. And the reason why is we've
learned so much about the sun. We're
getting better at it, but we have a long
way to go. And the more we look at some
of these historic events, the more we
get a deeper appreciation for what we
need to know.