Solar Storm | National Geographic

solar storms are a serious threat to our
high-tech lives in the 21st century the
race is on to predict when and where the
next one will strike in September 2006
Japan launches the hino d satellite its
three-year mission is to map the sun’s
complex magnetic fields the information
it sends back could prove key to
forecasting solar storms
he know the orbits 370 miles above earth
it’s camera Pierce straight into the
sun’s atmosphere it returns the clearest
pictures ever of the sun’s surface
in december two thousand six he know d
captures this groundbreaking footage a
magnetic arc snaps and a huge flare
erupts it lasts into the solar system at
more than a million miles an hour Cal
Shriver uses data from he know d to
generate the first computer model of a
solar storm before it erupts a detailed
map of the sun’s complex magnetic fields
what drives these large solar flares is
the magnetic field and specifically its
electrical currents running through the
magnetic field so each one of these
strands is essentially an electrical
current prefabricated in the interior of
the Sun breaking through the surface and
becoming visible and then ready to power
a flare where the magnetic fields
intertwine the closest the currents are
strongest shriver replicates these
electrical currents in three dimensions
if we tilt this we can suddenly see that
these are electrical currents come up
from one place go up by something like
fifteen twenty thousand kilometers above
the solar surface and come down again
the model shows a red river of energy
equal to a billion atom bombs when the
flare erupts it releases that energy in
seconds the amount of energy that goes
off in this flare is simply astounding
it’s the equivalent of a million times a
million atomic bombs going off at the
same time before a red river of current
thicker than the earth after almost
nothing