The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that stretches from one pole to the other and is significantly impacted by solar winds ejected by our Sun. When the charged particles carried by the solar wind hit our planet’s magnetosphere, they form either auroras or what we know as geomagnetic storms.
Geomagnetic storms, in particular, are hazardous for a part of the technology we rely upon, especially for GPS signaling and satellite communications. The issue is that solar activity is random and it’s hard for the scientists to predict these storms.
But, recently, a team of researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany released a new study in the Chaos journal of the AIM Publishing. According to them, they managed to elaborate new and improved geomagnetic storms prediction techniques.
The new method involves studying the Earth’s magnetic field data, and it might offer better short-term forecasting of geomagnetic storms
By using the Disturbance Storm-Time (DST) hourly values, the researchers found a way to calculate the average deviation of the horizontal component of the Earth’s magnetic field which happens whenever the charged particles of the solar winds impact the magnetosphere.
The data of the DST, which scientists can reproduce in 2D and 3D images, can provide precious information for a better prediction regarding geomagnetic storms. Accordingly, the researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany came out with a diagram also known as a recurrence plot which is an arrangement of dots nonuniformly scattered across the chart.
To achieve this results, the German scientists analyzed the data recorded in 2001 on massive solar flares emitted with only a couple of days before magnetic storms occurred. The 17-year-old data helped researchers come up with new and improved geomagnetic storms prediction techniques that could have great usability in the future.
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