Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Solar Storms
Mains level: Solar storms and their impact on Earth
According to a research, sudden releases of high-energy particles from the sun, called solar storms, can mess with the navigational ability of gray whales, causing them to strand on land.
Solar storms
- Solar storms are a variety of eruptions of mass and energy from the solar surface.
- Flares, prominences, sunspots, coronal mass ejections are the common harbingers of solar activity, as are plages and other related phenomena seen at other wavelengths.
Impact on Whales
- Solar storms have the potential to modify geomagnetic field and disrupt magnetic orientation behaviour of animals, hampering their navigation during long periods of migration.
- They disrupt earth’s magnetic field — and the whales’ navigational sense.
- The radio frequency noise created by the solar outburst affects the whales’ senses in a way that prevents them from navigating at all.
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