Solar storms start their lives as fierce explosions from the Suns surface.
Theyre made up of energetic charged particles wrapped in a complex magnetic cloud.
Depending on their direction of travel, these energetic storms can journey past Earth and other planets.
It can also cause destruction within the aviation industry by disrupting communication methods.
With enough lead time, they can safely change their operational procedures.
Often the magnetic field within a solar storm has a helical structure, twisted like a corkscrew.
But, much like tornadoes on Earth, these solar storms undergo major changes during their evolution.
This interaction is called magnetic reconnection.
This realignment of the field works in a similar way as two bar magnets attracting.
As of todays date, predicting the magnetic field structure within solar storms hitting Earth has remained mysterious.
Weve been stuck with less than 60 minutes of advance warning.
Its called the solar dynamo process.
This is a physical process that is believed to generate the suns magnetic field.
Well also see how well it works on any event we observe over the next year.
In the end, well be able to provide tangible information about how reliable a prediction tool it is.
The paper appeared in the journal Space Weather.
source: www.techworm.net
