What is a geomagnetic storm and how does it affect earth?
In: Planetary Science
The Sun is constant spewing out charged particles. A storm is a higher concentration of those particles. When they reach Earth they interact with Earth’s magnetic field. Normally the aurora is only visible quite far North and South near the poles. During a storm the aurora stretches towards the equator allowing way more people to see it.
An extremely powerful storm can affect stuff on the surface. The Carrington event was a geo storm that burned out telegraph systems and such by overloading them. More recently Quebec was affected by a storm and lost power in areas.
Imagine the Sun is like a giant ball that sometimes burps out a lot of energy and tiny particles into space. This burp is called a solar wind. When these particles from the Sun crash into Earth’s magnetic field, which is like an invisible shield surrounding our planet, it causes what we call a geomagnetic storm.
This storm can mess with some things on Earth, like making GPS signals wonky, causing power grids to have problems, and sometimes even creating beautiful light shows in the sky called auroras, which are like natural neon lights. So, a geomagnetic storm is like a weather event in space that can have some cool and sometimes disruptive effects down here on Earth!
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