Student Independent Research Project: The effects of Sunspot activity on Earth

By Bryan Gunawan, 11PHYS7, Mrs Siratkov

Identify data sources, gather and process information and use available evidence to assess
the effects of sunspot activity on the Earth's power grid and satellite communications

Sunspots are segments on the Suns surface that emit lower temperatures in comparison to
the suns surface temperature which result in these particular spots appearing darker than
the rest of the suns surface.

Within the sun, as it produces heat energy through fusion reactions of hydrogen into helium
this reaction results in plasma being formed, where the electrons within the atoms of the
gases of the sun have enough energy when heated to escape and form gas ions and free
electrons. This results in negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions. This hot
plasma will expand and will make up the general circular shape of the sun (photosphere). As
a result of these charged particles expanding from the Suns core, this will produce magnetic
fields that are emitted from the core of the sun.

As the hot plasma rises significantly enough to where temperatures can cool down the
plasma (convection), the plasma will contract and fall back down towards the centre of the
sun. This means that the suns magnetic field will be in a circular shape. However, there will
be situations where there will be immense magnetic field pressure. When these fields wrap
and twist around each other, magnetic storms can distort and disrupt the motion of the
convection currents near the surface and sunspots are formed (due to the immense stress).
At the surface layer of the sun, the extremely hot temperatures will in turn provide energy
to the particles on the suns surface layer, increasing their kinetic energy. The suns gravity is
not strong enough to hold these rapidly charged particles and this means that these
particles can move independently into space (known as solar wind). When the charged
particles that make up solar wind enter regions of space influenced by Earths magnetic
field, they are deflected towards the polar regions of the Earth. This would change the
magnetic field of the Earth on the surface, which can induce voltages in long wires such as
those used to transmit electricity over long distances.

The automatic safeguards that prevent electricity emission grids from overloading may be
triggered, which can cut off power supplies to whole regions across Earth.

Satellite communications can also be affected as the stream of charged particles can
interact with satellites in space and induce voltages in satellite electronics to potentially
destroy delicate parts or overload the satellites.

The interaction with the charged particles and the ionosphere produces radio wave energy
that may overcome the weak signals sent by satellites. This would detrimentally affect GPS
operations, as they rely on the weak signals sent by satellites from space.

Further, solar wind can cause the thermosphere (a large region of hot gas) to swell up due
to solar ultraviolet and x-ray radiation. As satellites are travelling through the outer reaches
of the Earths atmosphere, they will experience more atmospheric drag due to this swelling
of the thermosphere. Thus their orbit will decay, and cause satellite communication to fail
due to the alteration of their orbits around Earth.
Bibliography:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Updated 2017/03/15 The Sunspot
Cycle, https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml, (Accessed 17th August 2017)

Amara Graps, How do sunspots form?,

http://solarcenter.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qspotsearth.html, (Accessed 18th August 2017)

Scientific American, The Role of Sunspots and Solar Winds In Climate Change,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sun-spots-and-climate-change/, (Accessed 18th
August 2017)

Wu, Xiao L, first published 2009, Physics in Focus Preliminary Course, Published by
McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 22/09/11, Solar Activity can Affect
Re-entry of URAS Satellite, https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/solar-
effects.html, (Accessed 19th August)