Earth adopts the field lines as its own, incorporating the stowaway plasma into its sphere of space. When a solar storm strikes, the particles are energized. "We had always thought the shields would be completely closed if the fields were aligned. There would be virtually no plasma coming in. What this shows is that it's really the opposite," Rader said. The discovery will be incorporated into computer models and simulations used to predict adverse space weather. "We'll have more confidence in the future that when we observe things coming from the sun we'll come to a (forecaster), provide those observations and ask him 'What's going to happen next?'" Sibeck said. "We're moving toward the capability to predict these troublesome intervals. If we can do that, we can protect our spacecraft; we can notify astronauts in space that this is not a good time to spacewalk; we can tell a power line company, 'You're likely to experience a transformer blowout.'," he said. Related Links: |
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