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Solar superstorms may occur 93 million miles away from Earth, but they pose a real threat to our daily routines. Not only would nearly all forms of commerce and communication experience interruptions, the power grid would take a hit. Depending on the storm’s size, recovery could take up to two years.
Based on actual solar data, visualizations like this one--showing how solar plasma warps the Earth’s magnetic field--give researchers a better understanding of how such events occur. The National Science Foundation has a long history of advancing research that helps the nation improve its preparation, response and recovery from catastrophic events and will continue to pursue this work to ensure the nation stays safe.Image credit: Advanced Visualization Lab/D. Cox, R. Patterson, S. Levy, A. Christensen, K. Borkiewicz, J. Carpenter/National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois
