accord to unexampled inquiry , not all solar storms can be detected by system currently in consumption . Described in theJournal of Space Weather and Space Climate , this possible sleuthing failure get a pregnant threat to the earth power supply and communication internet .
Solar tempest , also known as geomagnetic storms , are irregular flutter of the Earth ’s magnetosphere due to vivid solar natural process . The most powerful solar storm on record , the Carrington event , was responsible for aurora from the magnetic pole to the tropic as well as generating fires in telegraph stations across the U.S. and Europe in 1859 . It was estimated that the cost of a solar tempest of such order of magnitude today could be in the order of trillions of dollar for theU.S. alone .
The most widely used index for measure a geomagnetic storm is the Dst ( Disturbance storm time ) , which is obtained by average data from four observatories around the world : Hermanus ( South Africa ) , Kakioka ( Japan ) , Honolulu ( Hawaii , USA ) and San Juan ( Puerto Rico ) . The index is updated every hour . A more precise index finger , SYM - H , collects data from even more observatories , with version hold every minute . Both index tax the charismatic study at a specific latitude .
One of the largest solar violent storm in recent years was the Halloween Solar Storm , which take seat between October and November 2003 . The tempest cause fires at superpower stations in South Africa and an hour - foresighted blackout in Sweden . The effect was detected , but only by the Tihany Magnetic Observatory in Hungary . The team behind this in vogue research from the University of Alcalá has now analyzed why it was n’t discover by the official indicator and the consequences of it .
" One of the conclusions is that the indices commonly used by scientist – such as Dst or SYM - H , which are based on an overall perspective of the Earth and obtained by calculating averages – failed to detect such an important event , and they most likely would have fail to detect the Carrington Event as well , " explain Professor Consuelo Cid , the star author , in astatement .
The study claims that by using ecumenical average , the positive and negative magnetic disturbances in local observatories might call off each other out , conduct to a failure in detection , like in the case of the Halloween Solar Storm .
The squad has modernise a newfangled index number based on local magnetic readings , which depends on both latitude and longitude . The Local Disturbance Index for Spain calculates the geomagnetic fluster over the Iberian Peninsula by using the San Pablo Observatory in Toledo . They argued that similar indices should be develop in other domain of the world and that research worker should cooperate with the companies , such as electricity providers , that might be touch on most severely by solar violent storm .
