Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm the "Environmental Bank" who possesses all the worldwide environmental issues. Currently, worldwide presses are tumultuous with the issues of Solar Flares, which are expected to be the most powerful in the past 20 years. A significant event in 2024 already took place 3 days ago, on the first day of February, with another activity expected on February 18. Given that Solar Flares are an ongoing event, I will now provide an introduction to this phenomenon.
What is a Solar Flare?
Solar Flare is a tremendous explosion on the Sun that happens when energy stored in 'twisted' magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) is suddenly released. This Solar Flare occurs every 11 years when its sunspots are in a highly activated state.
What kinds of Solar Flares are there?
Scientists classify the extent of a Solar Flare based on their brightness in the X-ray wavelengths. Each of their names is A, B, C, M, and X, where A is the tiniest and X is the largest.
To arrange the extent of their effect on Earth,
- B class - They are too small to harm Earth
- C class - They are small with few noticeable consequences on Earth
- M class - They can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions and minor radiation storms
- X class- They can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms
Historically, what effect did Solar Flares have?
- 9 hours of transmission grid disruptions
In 1989, most of the places in Quebec, Canada experienced an astronomical problem, such as 9 hours of transmission grid disruptions.
- Hindrance to Satellite launch
In 2022, 40 out of 49 satellites from the US failed to land in orbits, and Solar Flares was nominated as one of the contributing factors behind its failure.
Then, what happens if Solar Flares take place?
Briefly summarizing NASA's 2017 statement below, Solar Flares rarely affect humans' health, yet they could still trigger technological problems, such as disruption in GPS and interference in communication signal travels.
Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. Howeverโwhen intense enoughโthey can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
Part of the NASA's 2017 statement
However, we should still be aware of potential health problems derived from Solar Flares, according to Dr. Gary.
There are potential health effects for anyone exposed to that high-energy radiation, but actually we are protected because those rays and particles get absorbed into our atmosphere.
Dr. Gary
Wrap-Up
Some people may wonder if exercising caution to incidents related to solar flares is necessary or not. The answer is that we, especially Asians, don't have to concern ourselves about catastrophic events that solar flares would engender. There are low possibility of solar flares affecting humans or technologies, and even if they do cause problems, they are likely to impact Western countries.
Therefore, I would like to say that we don't need to be overly concerned about the consequences of Solar Flares.
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