Stargazing Notes — Space weather
Ken Tapping is an astronomer with the National Research Council's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, and is based at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton.
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Updated: August 26, 2009 9:23 AM
On March 10, 1989 there was a huge flare on the sun. This huge explosion, the equivalent of millions of hydrogen bombs, was the biggest in at least 40 years. Our monitoring equipment picked up its radio signature. That explosion ejected a huge cloud of solar material into space at more than a thousand kilometres a second.
It arrived at the Earth in the early hours of the 13th, causing a huge magnetic storm that did damage around the world totalling more than a billion dollars. Today we are more vulnerable than ever to such events, Canada more so than many other countries.
The problems Canada has are two-fold. Firstly, Canada is close to the Northern Magnetic Pole. This means that the consequences of the sun’s bad behaviour hit us especially hard. In addition, Canada is a large country, and is strongly dependent upon long-distance communications, relay satellites, gas and oil pipelines, and huge power distribution networks.
Satellites are vulnerable to high-energy particles from the sun, which can degrade or completely destroy their electronics. Electric currents induced by sun-driven variations in the Earth’s magnetic field can cause power outages. In addition to the effects of big magnetic storms, there are the consequences of low-level magnetic activity, which continues almost all the time. The electric currents induced in the pipelines cause corrosion at welded joints, leading to eventual failure, which can be avoided by an adequate level of inspection and maintenance. These currents also increase the stress on electrical transformers, shortening their lives.
Canada’s approach to these issues is multifaceted. Firstly we need to understand the science of what is going on. Secondly we need an adequate level of monitoring, so that we know what the Sun is up to and what is happening in the Earth’s magnetic field. Finally we need to improve our ability to forecast activity and its consequences, and to make the information easily available to all who need it, whoever and wherever they are.
One facet of this is the Canadian Geo-Space Monitoring Programme, which is a partnership between Canadian universities, the Canadian Space Agency, the National Research Council and Natural Resources Canada. This program brings together the many science and monitoring programmes distributed across Canada into one effort. Another is a collaboration between the CSA, NRCan and NRC to bring the data and space weather forecasts together in a single national distribution point accessible to all who need it. It is a website called www.spaceweather.gc.ca. Thirdly there is the development of new solar monitoring instrumentation. One example of special interest to us is the Next Generation Solar Flux Monitor Project, a team effort between NRC, the CSA, NRCan and Queen’s University, with the participation of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, to develop the next generation of solar radio monitoring instruments. The first will come into operation here at DRAO in the next three years.
Saturn is now lost in the sunset glare. Jupiter is visible in the southern sky all night. Mars rises just after midnight, and Venus rises in the early hours. The moon will reach first quarter on the 27th.
Ken Tapping is an astronomer with the National Research Council's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, and is based at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton.
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