Dangerous, High-Speed Solar Wind to Strike Earth At 800 km/sec: How Will This Affect the Power Grid in the UK?

Space report recently said that a dangerous and high-speed solar wind would strike the planet this evening, and if this happened, it could play havoc with the power grid of the United Kingdom.

As indicated in a report from Daily Star, the flare would be coming from a hole in the Sun at roughly one million miles per hour.

More so, it would buffet the magnetosphere of the Earth, which means that it would attempt to break through this planet's atmosphere.

While the odds of hitting the Earth as classified as "slight," if it were to strike the planet, the power grids will start fluctuating because of the unstable nature of the wind.

To Cause Problems on Google Maps and Birds

This occurrence will also cause problems with satellites that control the GPS on apps like the Google Maps, among others, a similar The World News report said.

In addition, if that is not enough, it will confuse as well, among migratory animals like birds flying at higher altitudes compared to normal at this time of the year. It has been believed that the solar particles "could throw them off course."

Essentially, no official warning about the wind has been released by the government, although that is perhaps because it is not possibly hitting the Earth.

Experts at Space.com have said, the outer layer of the sun, known as the corona, reaches temperatures of up to two million degrees Fahrenheit or 1.1 million degrees Celsius.

At this level, the gravity of the Sun cannot hold on to the quickly moving particles, and they stream away from the star.

The solar wind's velocity is higher over coronal holes, reaching maximum speeds of up to 500 miles or 800 kilometers per second.

Furthermore, the temperatures and density over coronal holes are low, and the magnetic field is weak; thus, the field lines become open to space.

Such holes appear at the poles and low latitudes, approaching their largest when activity on the Sun reaches its minimum. Temperatures in the fast wind can reach a maximum of one million degrees Fahrenheit or 800,000 degrees Celsius.

Understanding the Sun's Corona

The UCAR Center for Science Education describes corona as the "outer atmosphere of the Sun." It extends miles and miles atop the visible surface of the Sun, slowly transforming into the solar wind slowing outward through the solar system.

The material in the corona is a scorching yet tenuous plasma. More so, the temperature in this outer layer of the Sun is more than one million degrees, surprisingly quite hotter compared to the temperature at the surface of the Sun, which is approximately 5,500 degrees Celsius or 9,940 degrees Fahrenheit.

Both the density and pressure in the corona are much, much lower than in the atmosphere of Earth. Moreover, the corona is on top of the lower atmosphere of the SUn, also known as the chromosphere.

A relatively narrow area, also known as the transition region, separates this outer layer of the sun from the chromosphere.

Temperatures are rising sharply in the transition area, from the thousands of degrees in the chromosphere to over one million degrees in the corona.

Related information about the Sun's corona is shown on Astrum's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Sun in Science Times.