Representative image: Aurora lights | Image: Shutterstock
Ladakh’s recent observations of aurora, characterized by reddish or greenish light in the night sky and observed mostly in the far northern areas, are a confirmation of our efforts in space weather monitoring, a team of astrophysicists who observed the activity about 48-72 hours earlier predicted. said.
The appearance of intense red-colored beams of light in the sky on the intervening night of October 10-11 was the latest in a series of recent observations of the Northern Lights; previous sightings took place on May 11 this year, and November 5 and May. 10 of 2023.
All-sky cameras from the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) at Hanle and Merak in Ladakh captured the aurora throughout the night.
Dibyendu Nandi, head of the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) at the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, told PTI: “The aurora observations are confirmation that we are on the right track. our confidence to predict extreme weather events in space that could potentially compromise a variety of satellite-based services on Earth, bringing modern society to a standstill.”
Space agencies and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA, monitor space weather to provide timely information about solar disruptions, which could potentially cause communications disruptions and satellite disruptions.
While aurorae are known for their scenic beauty, their occurrence in lower latitude areas such as Ladakh is an indication of increased solar activity in the form of solar storms known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs, Nandi said.
Solar storms occur periodically when the sun’s internal dynamo process – which creates the magnetic field – intensifies and weakens. This cycle of solar activity typically lasts eleven years. In 2018, the CESSI team, which included Nandi, predicted that the current solar activity cycle would peak in 2024, a finding published in the journal Nature Communications.
“However, we continue to monitor solar activity to determine if the current cycle has indeed peaked,” Nandi said.
An aurora is created when charged particles from the Sun interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere, or magnetic field, which acts as a shield against harmful solar and cosmic radiation. These particles penetrate the shield and cause auroras.
The phenomenon is most commonly observed in the far northern regions of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska and Russia, and throughout Iceland and Greenland.
However, the recent aurorae were also observed in the low latitudes of Mexico and Germany, Nandi added.
“The current solar cycle 25 is at the highest level of sunspot activity, which is significantly higher than the previous cycle 24,” said IIA professor SPK Rajaguru.
The current solar cycle would have started in December 2019, while the previous one would have started in December 2008.
On October 7, Nandi’s team at CESSI was alerted to a possible adverse space weather development when they spotted multiple “active” regions in the Sun’s magnetic field pointed toward Earth.
“Some filaments (sheared magnetic field structures in the Sun’s lower atmosphere) are also observed on the Earth-facing solar disk. There are chances of outburst or filament burst-induced coronal mass ejection. Current weather conditions near Earth in space are moderately disturbed,” CESSI had said this in a post on X on October 7.
“This is when our machine learning-based computer models first flagged the possibility of solar flares and associated solar storms. When the storm did indeed rise, we analyzed the satellite observations and predicted a ‘severe’ (solar) storm on October 9” , says Nandi. said.
The astrophysicist explained that a “severe” solar storm is capable of causing auroras and amplifying the orbital decay of satellites, while an “extreme” solar storm is capable of “killing satellites, tripping power grids and causing widespread communications outages.” ‘.
The team discovered two solar storms aimed at Earth, leading them to expect a “further escalation of space weather conditions over the next 24 to 36 hours,” according to their post on X on October 9.
“For an extraordinary fourth time during the current solar cycle, intense red-colored aurora activity was observed from Ladakh, India, and photographed by astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) from Hanle, Leh and Merak on the night of October 10-11, 2024” , according to the institute’s press statement.
The bright red streamers that formed the aurora, easily seen with the “naked eye,” began appearing at 10:45 p.m. and remained intense until dawn, the report said.
Nandi said the aurora observations “herald the peak of the current solar cycle.”
However, attention must be paid to whether or not the current cycle has reached its peak. This might be marked by less frequent solar storms and auroras over the years when the sun’s activity begins to decline, he added.
Nandi said the results are confirmation that we are on the right track and boosted confidence in their ability to predict an ‘extreme’ solar storm, the effects of which would likely be more disruptive.
“The effects in such a case will not be limited to night sky viewer glasses, but will be far more damaging to communications, telecommunications and satellites, which humanity has come to rely on for their daily lives, including navigation, banking. and other strategic services,” the astrophysicist warned.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: October 13, 2024 | 2:04 PM IST