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NASA: humanity will know in 30 minutes how a deadly solar storm will hit the Earth

Bylim Olena

NASA: humanity will know in 30 minutes how a deadly solar storm will hit the Earth
A deadly solar storm could reach Earth in 2025. Source: istockphoto.com

The climate crisis is becoming an increasingly real threat to the Earth, and one of its manifestations is the increase in solar storm activity. To respond to this threat, a NASA team is using artificial intelligence to develop an early warning system.

According to ScienceAlert, light travels faster than the materials ejected from the Sun during solar storms. This means that scientists have about 30 minutes to warn the Earth's inhabitants about a possible solar storm.

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Severe solar storms can lead to power outages for hours or even massive destruction of electrical and communications infrastructure. To improve solar storm forecasting, NASA scientists use data from satellites such as ACE, Wind, IMP-8, and Geotail.

To develop an accurate predictive model, they use artificial intelligence and call it DAGGER. This model is able to predict the intensity and direction of solar storms in less than a second, and make predictions every minute. This is a significant step forward compared to previous forecasting methods that took a long time.

Such predictions are important because solar storms can affect the operation of power plants, satellites, and communication systems. DAGGER has the ability to predict where a solar storm might hit the Earth.

This new system is being launched on an open-source platform, giving utilities and communications companies time to integrate it into their threat assessment and public warning systems.

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Thanks to DAGGER, scientists can receive information about extreme solar events faster and more efficiently to reduce the possible consequences for our electricity and communications infrastructure.

Thus, thanks to modern technologies and artificial intelligence, humanity will be able to better protect itself from solar storms and their consequences for the Earth.

As a reminder, when birds and other animals make seasonal migrations, they are guided by the geomagnetic field. However, coronal mass ejections on the Sun regularly trigger Earth's magnetic storms, which can temporarily disrupt the navigation process of birds on long-distance flights.

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