{"id":3003,"date":"2026-01-20T17:50:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T12:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=3003"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:08:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T12:38:44","slug":"what-are-geomagnetic-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-are-geomagnetic-storms\/","title":{"rendered":"G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<p>A powerful G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm, caused by solar activity, has lit up the night skies with spectacular auroras visible across multiple continents.<\/p>\n<h2>About Geomagnetic Storms<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A geomagnetic storm is a major<strong> disturbance of Earth&#8217;s magnetosphere<\/strong> that occurs <strong>when there is<\/strong> a very <strong>efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into<\/strong> the <strong>space <\/strong>environment <strong>surrounding Earth<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These storms <strong>result from<\/strong> variations in the solar wind that produce<strong> major changes in<\/strong> the <strong>currents, plasmas, and fields in Earth\u2019s magnetosphere.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The solar wind<strong> conditions<\/strong> that are <strong>effective for creating<\/strong> geomagnetic <strong>storms are sustained<\/strong> (for several hours) <strong>periods of<\/strong> the <strong>high-speed solar wind<\/strong> and <strong>a southward-directed solar wind magnetic field<\/strong> (opposite the direction of Earth\u2019s field) <strong>at<\/strong> the <strong>dayside of the magnetosphere<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>largest such storms<\/strong> are <strong>associated with solar <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-are-coronal-mass-ejections-cmes\/\" target=\"_blank\">coronal mass ejections (CMEs)<\/a>, where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, arrives at Earth.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Effects:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It <strong>results in intense currents <\/strong>in the magnetosphere, <strong>changes in the radiation belts<\/strong>, and changes in the ionosphere, including <strong>heating the ionosphere and an upper atmosphere<\/strong> region called the <strong>thermosphere<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>These storms can heat the ionosphere, <strong>causing beautiful auroras<\/strong> on earth.<\/li>\n<li>Because the ionosphere is heated and distorted during storms, l<strong>ong-range radio communication<\/strong> that relies on sub-ionospheric reflection<strong> gets affected<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ionospheric expansion due to these<\/strong> storms <strong>can increase satellite drag<\/strong> and make their orbits difficult to control.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Satellite electronics can be damaged<\/strong> through the buildup and discharge of static-electric charges.<\/li>\n<li>It can <strong>disrupt global navigation systems<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It can <strong>create harmful geomagnetic-induced currents (GICs)in<\/strong> the <strong>power grid<\/strong> and pipelines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is Solar Wind?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>continual stream of protons and electrons from the sun&#8217;s<\/strong> outermost atmosphere, the <strong>corona<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>These charged particles <strong>breeze through the solar system<\/strong> at speeds ranging from around 250 miles (400 kilometers) per second to 500 miles (800 km) per second, <strong>in a plasma state.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Solar magnetic field is embedded in the plasma and flows<\/strong> outward <strong>with the solar wind.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Different regions of the Sun produce solar wind of different speeds and densities.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When the <strong>solar wind reaches Earth,<\/strong> it <strong>sends a flurry of charged particles into the magnetosphere <\/strong>and along Earth&#8217;s magnetic field lines, towards the poles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>G4 geomagnetic storm triggered by strong solar activity lit up skies with auroras and disrupted satellites, power grids, radio communication and navigation systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":83500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}