On Oct. 8, 2013, an explosion on the sun's corona sent a "blast wave of solar wind" that bypassed Mercury and Venus, whizzed by the moon and headed for Earth. The Earth's magnetic field took a hit which set off a magnetized sound pulse across the globe.
NASA's Van Allen Probes, "twin spacecraft" in the radiation belt inside the magnetic field of Earth, captured the shockwave - from beginning to end, according to a press release from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.
The findings have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
The probes' data of the shockwave has been analyzed by MIT's Haystack Observatory, the University of Colorado and other institutions and they found that the 60-second magnetosonic pulse caused some particles in the radiation belts to accelerate to ultrahigh energies, according to the press release.
"These are very lightweight particles, but they are ultrarelativistic, killer electrons -- electrons that can go right through a satellite," said Associate Director of MIT's Haystack Observatory John Foster, according to the press release. "These particles are accelerated, and their number goes up by a factor of 10, in just one minute. We were able to see this entire process taking place, and it's exciting: We see something that, in terms of the radiation belt, is really quick."
Foster said that solar shockwaves occur a few times monthly and the blast in 2013 was "a relatively minor one," according to the press release. "This was a relatively small shock. We know they can be much, much bigger," Foster said. "Interactions between solar activity and Earth's magnetosphere can create the radiation belt in a number of ways, some of which can take months, others days. The shock process takes seconds to minutes. This could be the tip of the iceberg in how we understand radiation-belt physics."
