The solar system is likely to advance into a change with the recent data from the Sun’s magnetic field’s digital mapping.
Scientists and researchers say that the Sun’s magnetic field difference might affect the earth’s satellite, navigations, power grid, and telecommunications system.
In its very first attempt at mapping the Sun’s magnetic field digitally, scientists and researchers are trying to record over five decades of the 20th century. The solar physicists aim better to understand the activities of the Sun through this experiment.
Since the Sun is one of the Solar system’s main components, it decides the earth’s weather, navigation systems, and even telecommunications. Therefore, this experiment becomes highly essential for researchers to study. The director of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Dipankar Banerjee said:
“Like climate studies, we need information from vast historical datasets in order to better understand the Sun. Using this magnetic field map, it will be possible to make more accurate solar cycle predictions and study the Sun’s pole reversals in future.”
Digital data of Sun
The digital pictures are captured through a Ca II-K and H-alpha filters. This is a highly complicated process and is Hydrogen-alpha and Calcium filters. The hydrogen filter emits red light while the calcium filter emits blue light. Through this combination, solar physicists can view solar interferences, filaments, and flares that would generally remain invisible.
There were almost 15,000 digital images. koSO now has a total of four lakh pictures since 1904. These pictures are also saved in digital format from the past three decades.
The reversal in Sun’s magnetic poles
Earth has magnetic poles that are known as North and South Poles. These magnetic poles affect navigation and another telecommunication engineering that has been supported on earth. Sun has similar bars too. However, the Sun’s magnetic poles behave peculiarly with a reversal in its magnetic fields every 11 years. In 11 years, the Sun also completes the duration of one solar cycle. The last solar cycle commenced in December 2019. It was the 25th cycle of the Sun.
In one of the remarkable reversals, scientists observed a triple pole reversal in 1927 and 1957.
Karak, who is a Ramanujan Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology, said, “Sun’s pole reversal is not realized simultaneously at the end of a solar cycle, but there is a time lag during which a pole can showcase properties of a previously held polarity.”
Impact on Earth
The magnetic fields’ movement in the last five decades from lower latitude to higher latitude might indicate links between two solar cycles. It will also significantly impact the navigation, telecommunications, power grid, and earth’s satellite system.
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