An artist's impression of NASA's Solar Cruiser spacecraft. NASA
A team of scientists has warned that we need a better system for detecting space tornadoes caused by plasma eruptions from the sun.
These spirals of solar wind can lead to large solar eruptions that can affect astronauts in orbit and key technological infrastructure on Earth.
The University of Michigan team claims a constellation of spacecraft, including one powered by sunlight, could serve as an effective and necessary early warning system.
Simulating space tornadoes
In 2013, former NASA chief Charles Bolden stated that space weather could be as devastating to the planet as regular tornadoes and other natural disasters on Earth. Geomagnetic storms, which are caused by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun, can be strong enough to disrupt satellite orbits. In an extreme scenario, the highly magnetized sun plasma could cause a global internet outage.
Now, in a new study, the team from the University of Michigan explains how they ran computer simulations of space weather to determine necessary actions. They simulated an enormous plasma cloud erupting from the sun and moving through our solar system. During this simulated event, smaller, tornado-like spirals of plasma and magnetic field, called flux ropes, formed. The scientists investigated how these could impact our planet.
“Our simulation shows that the magnetic field in these vortices can be strong enough to trigger a geomagnetic storm and cause some real trouble,” Chip Manchester, the study’s corresponding author, explained in a press statement.
Flux ropes in the solar wind range from 3,000 to 6 million miles in width. In their simulations, the University of Michigan team observed flux ropes form when CMEs moved through slower solar wind. While some of the tornadoes dissipated quickly, others were more persistent. These were typically caused when neighboring fast and slow solar wind streams clashed.
According to the researchers, telescopes do not provide enough warning regarding these potentially hazardous vortices. Their paper, published in the Astrophysical Journal, suggests a multiple-probe view of the solar wind is required.
Solar sail probe to enable 40% faster space weather warnings
The team proposed an alteration to an existing spacecraft constellation concept called the Space Weather Investigation Frontier (SWIFT). This NASA mission concept would see four probes stationed in a triangular-pyramid formation, around 200,000 miles apart.
Three identical probes would make up three corners, while a final “hub spacecraft” would point towards the sun. According to the researchers, this would provide an ample view of solar winds headed to Earth. For the hub spacecraft, the scientists suggested taking cues from NASA’s Solar Cruiser – a proposed NASA mission that would have studied the sun using an aluminium solar sail.
These probes would be stationed at Lagrange Point 1 (L1), a stable orbital location between the Earth and the sun. The scientists claim that L1’s proximity to the sun would enable a 40 percent speed increase for space weather warnings.
In 2021, a paper from University of California, Irvine assistant professor Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi detailed the devastating effects a powerful coronal mass ejection – or a ‘solar tsunami’ – could have on our internet-reliant world. By impacting undersea cables that form an integral part of the globe’s internet infrastructure, such a storm could cause an internet outage, costing the US economy an estimated $7.2 billion daily.
In May 2024, the real-world impact of a geomagnetic storm was felt when satellite orbits were disrupted, high-voltage power lines were tripped, and some planes were forced to change course.
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