Visitors from throughout Southern California often park their beach chairs and fishing gear on the narrow stretch of rocky sand that surrounds the Big Bear Solar Observatory, as it juts into Big Be…
Visitors from throughout Southern California often park their beach chairs and fishing gear on the narrow stretch of rocky sand that surrounds the Big Bear Solar Observatory, as it juts into Big Bear Lake from the north shore.
The Big Bear Solar Observatory sits on a peninsula on the north shore of the lake in Big Bear, CA, on Friday, August 26, 2022. The Big Bear Solar Observatory sits on a peninsula on the north shore of the lake in Big Bear, CA, on Friday, August 26, 2022. After some recent upgrades, the observatory’s main telescope is offering a continuous feed of high-resolution images of electromagnetic storms taking place on the sun — and what that ball of glowing gas 93 million miles away looks like just before those storms get started.
Researchers know sunspot formations greatly increase the odds for large solar storms. And Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said that if he gets images from the Big Bear Solar Observatory that show such clusters, he can issue a space weather forecast that might predict a 70% chance of a major solar flare in the next 24 hours.
This last point matters because a mass ejection acts like a magnet. If the ejection happens to be polarized in a way that is repelled by the Earth’s own magnetism, Murtagh said the threat is low. But if it’s polarized in a way that makes it attracted to Earth, the result can be intense — and potentially catastrophic — geomagnetic storms.
A better advanced warning system could stave off a lot of damage in the event the next storm doesn’t miss us. Murtagh said grid operators could protect their systems from the coming surge of energy, airlines could delay or reroute flights and NASA could adjust missions. And the public could takeThat might all sound pretty apocalyptic.
Big Bear is now facing the opposite problem. When the lake is full, water surrounds the observatory site minus a narrow causeway that connects it to land. But the West’s climate change-fueled megadrought hasnearly 17 feet, creating a strip of beach around the observatory and along the causeway. But one building houses the newly installed SOLIS telescope, which Pulkkinen of NASA said will be critical in the quest to improve space weather predictions. Another building has offices and labs and a machine shop, where mechanical engineer Jeff Nenow crafts parts to repair equipment or to facilitate whatever latest project researchers have dreamed up. And another building is Cao’s home for the half the year he doesn’t spend teaching at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Wenda Cao, director of the Big Bear Solar Observatory, with their main telescope in Big Bear, CA, on Friday, August 26, 2022.
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