Unleash the Fury: Discover the Dangers of Solar Winds!
Solar winds have played a role in the recent string of solar storms that have impacted Earth in recent weeks. These winds have either initiated solar storm events or intensified existing ones. Despite being overshadowed by solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME), the potential for solar winds to cause harm should not be underestimated. According to NASA officials and research papers, these winds have the ability to not only initiate solar storms but also ignite forest fires and harm spacecraft, posing a potential threat to the lives of astronauts.
What are solar winds?
Solar winds are not winds because space is a complete vacuum and there is no air. These “winds” are powerful plasma waves generated in the Sun’s corona. According to NASA, they contain both solar particles and strong magnetic fields. Due to the Sun’s extremely fast rotation speed, the plasma swirls near the polar region, from where it escapes along the Sun’s outwardly protruding magnetic field lines and surrounds it with a mantle-like structure.
Solar winds can cause forest fires, claims study
According to a study published in PubMed, some forest fires may be related to solar winds hitting the planet. The study analyzed wildfires in Europe, particularly in Spain and Portugal in 2005, and found that “in every concrete situation, the radiation of strong electromagnetic and thermal energy from highly energetic areas that were in a geopotential position had preceded the fires”. .
While the study maintained its inability to prove with certainty that solar winds were responsible for the wildfires, it noted, “There is a strong causal link between solar activity and the ignition of these wildfires in southwestern Europe.”
What NASA says about the solar wind
In 2019, Dr. Nicola “Nicky” Fox, deputy director of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, spoke about the dangers of the solar wind to spacecraft and astronauts. At the time, he was the head of the heliophysics division and in one of his messages highlighted the effects of the solar wind, explaining that the use of aluminum acts as a shield that protects the spacecraft from the effects of charged particles. Still emphasizing the lurking danger, he added: “But there are also faster particles that travel at 80 percent of the speed of light, which can wreak havoc on parts of a spacecraft. They can hit solar panels and damage them, disrupt electronics, or affect electrical currents that run through power grids.”
NASA says knowing more about the effects of the solar wind isn’t just important to us living on Earth. Knowing how to mitigate its effects as astronauts travel back to the Moon and beyond is important, especially given how Indian Space and Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-4 and NASA’s Artemis 3 missions are expected to fare. astronauts to the moon.
