We have two hours to protect the power grid from an extreme solar storm. May’s auroras proved it

A powerful geomagnetic storm blanketed half the planet in auroras on May 10. Scientists are still studying the event to try to predict the next Carrington event, a solar impact so extreme it could catastrophically damage the power grid.

Auroras are more than just a visual spectacle. That celestial dance of green and red lights occurs when the Earth’s magnetic field interacts with charged particles coming from the Sun.

In a solar storm, the Sun shoots out large amounts of plasma in trajectories that can encounter the Earth. When these particles reach the Earth’s magnetosphere, the magnetic field that protects us directs them towards the poles, where they collide with gases in the atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen, producing emissions of light.

If the Sun’s outburst, called a coronal mass ejection, is very strong, it can compress the magnetosphere, shrinking it on the dayside of Earth (the side facing the star) and causing magnetic field lines to stretch and connect at lower latitudes than normal, which can cause auroras in those regions.

A warning of a threat to the power grid. Auroras also serve as a warning of imminent threats to our electrical infrastructure. And the powerful event in May has helped scientists better predict the level of risk thanks to the angle of the solar impact.

Specifically, a team of NASA researchers discovered that solar storms that hit the Earth’s magnetic field head-on can induce stronger geomagnetic currents, such as those that set some telegraph lines ablaze in 1859.

The research, led by astrophysicist Denny Oliveira of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has been published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciencesand warns of how these solar collisions can overload and damage not only the electrical grid, but also all types of infrastructure with a certain conductivity, such as gas pipelines.

Measurements on a gas pipeline in Finland. Oliveira’s team compared solar storm data with measurements of geomagnetically induced currents in a gas pipeline in Mäntsälä, Finland.

Their research showed that solar particles hitting the Earth’s magnetic field at an angle produce weaker currents than head-on collisions because head-on collisions compress the magnetic field more, generating more powerful currents.

One of the reasons the scientists chose Mäntsälä is the openness of its data, but the general lack of information forced them to rule out many correlations with solar shocks. “It would be good if power companies around the world made their data available to scientists for studies,” Oliveira says in a statement. a press release.

Two hours to protect our infrastructure. More data would mean more knowledge about how long it takes for a solar storm impact to induce a geomagnetic current. With the data available, the good news is that head-on collisions are not only more powerful, but also more predictable thanks to telescopes that are always pointed at the Sun.

It is not a window to celebrate, but the study says that they can be predicted up to two hours in advance, which opens a crucial window to implement protective measures on the electricity grid and other infrastructure such as the aforementioned gas pipelines.

“One thing that power infrastructure operators could do to safeguard their equipment is to manage only specific electrical circuits when a discharge alert is issued,” Oliveira explains. “This would prevent geomagnetically induced currents from reducing the lifespan of the equipment.”

Image | Ben (CC BY-ND 2.0)

At Xataka | A sunspot 17 times larger than Earth caused red auroras all over the world. It’s a very rare event