The strength of solar storms hitting Earth can vary dramatically over short distances, with places just a few dozen miles apart experiencing very different magnetic disruptions, new research finds.
This could mean that some areas are more vulnerable to large solar storms than previously appreciated, study co-author Eija Tanskanen, the director of the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO) in Finland said in a statement. Today, most monitoring networks for solar storms have sensors that are spaced on average about 250 miles (400 kilometers) apart. But Tanskanen and her colleagues found that solar storm strength varies across much smaller ranges of around 62 miles (100 km).
“When such a solar storm hits, [a] too-sparse magnetometer network could lead to underestimation of local magnetic disturbances,” Tanskanen said.
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