Coronal Mass Ejections

Coronal Mass Ejections is a term that could sound us slightly strange, but if we listen or read the word solar blazes, there comes to the mind the image of a Solar explosion. Thanks to the mass media, this term has received an importance place at present, especially in the year 2012, when a maximum in the solar cycle was waited, provoking one of these ejections that would come to our planet.

Although for some of you these articles are similar to science fiction,  we must know why they are produced and the consequences from our planet and our life too.

On September 1^st of middle of the 19th century, was possible to observe a snap of white light from the Earth that was associated with a solar explosion. For that reason, it was one of the first events that motivated this study. However we had to wait until the 20^th Century to study the solar crown as we know it today, thanks to help of the satellites. It is important to emphasize that the study must be done during the eclipses. 

The explosions happen in the mass external cap of the Sun, exactly in the solar crown, and they are one of the most energetic effects in the space. These contain Sun´s matter, principally plasma (composed by some of the periodic table elements like the Hydrogen or Helium, which are expelled to great speed. To have an idea of the speed , we can cross the distance between Tenerife and Russia during the interval of three seconds and three minutes (2000 Km/s and 50 Km/s))

These explosions have a shape of waves  and hit against the magnetosphere; to understand it better, on having thrown a stone in the water, we can observed small waves that it produces, so this it is the same idea,  but on a large scale. 

Some studies are associating the blazes with the variation of the solar spots (dark zones of the same one) during the solar cycle, which duration is 11 years approximately.

Image caught by the satellite SOHO by means of the instrumentation LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronograph) .The opaque circle corresponds(fits) to the coronógrafo and the white circunference corresponds(fits) to the surface of the Sun.

On having hit with our exterior atmosphere, the energetic particles, which contain the solar eruptions, provoke a visual effect in the terrestrial atmosphere: these are the northern lights. This phenomenon indicates that our atmosphere is being bombarded by energetic particles of the interstellar way. Though not always they remain in a simple visual effect, but it can cause a major consequence.

Aurora borealis.

We must not be ignoramuses with our environment, and for that reason there are big investigations groups that are centering on the detection and prediction of this phenomenon, which has always happened. Because it can cause not only electrical blackouts (in the local network, as on a worldwide scale), but also erroneous reading in GPS, fall of internet, etc.... This is due to a network saturation, which complete reestablishment might last from months to years.

 The main question is: Will we be able to avoid the serious consequences in case of suffering a geomagnetic storm?. A rapid detection facilitates us the power of extinguishing the electricity generating equipments and to avoid the overload, due to the fact that the plasma contains neutrons and electrons. These two last are the managers of generating electricity and to overload the electrical network, provoking the burning of generators and other consequences.

The storms have always existed and they will exist, owning that fact that it is natural process and we have a magnetic field that protects us. It is of emphasizing the blackout of March 13^th , 1989 in Quebec (Canada), which city remained without electrical net for 24 hours because it was fused several generators that supplied the city.

Nowadays these effects are more notable thanks to the technological advance, due to the fact that we can feel the effects of the storms; because we were not as dependent on technology as we are now.

Bibliography:

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