Scientists have discovered a link between solar storms and galactic rays
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- Scientists have discovered a link between solar storms and galactic rays
An international team of scientists led by Mahidol University in Thailand has discovered a link between solar storms and streams of high-energy cosmic rays reaching the Earth. The researchers found that powerful plasma emissions can affect particles with an energy of 10 thousand. It is several times higher than the indicators studied earlier. This was reported by Science X magazine on June 29.
The Earth's magnetic field is constantly exposed to charged particles from two sources: galactic cosmic rays and solar storms.
Until now, it was believed that these phenomena are independent, since high-energy particles must pass unhindered through the magnetic structures of the solar wind.
To test this belief, a team led by David Ruffolo studied data from China's LHAASO Observatory. The installation records hundreds of millions of particle collisions per hour in the teraelectronvolt range. To eliminate the influence of atmospheric conditions on the results, physicists focused not on the total number of rays, but on the direction of their arrival.
When analyzing data on the solar storm that occurred in November 2021, the team recorded an imbalance. For several hours, significantly fewer cosmic rays arrived from the northeastern part of the sky than from other directions.
"The outward-moving plasma bubble associated with the storm contained magnetic turbulence at its leading edge. This plasma predominantly scattered cosmic rays heading inward towards the Sun, which created a detectable directional imbalance in the number of particles reaching the Earth," the study notes.
According to the authors of the work, cosmic rays can become a remote sensing tool for mapping magnetic structures inside solar storms. Unlike spacecraft that take measurements only at a specific point in space, particle fluxes can cover much larger regions.
Scientists claim that this discovery will allow them to receive information in advance about approaching storms and more effectively protect satellites, power grids and communication systems from their effects.
Marina Konstantinova, an Invitro internist, spoke to Izvestia on June 8 about the impact of magnetic storms on well-being. According to her, in some people they may be accompanied by a deterioration in well-being, but there is still insufficient scientific evidence of a direct effect on health.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
