Can we control solar flares? If so, what are the implications?
Question:
(Edge-Localized Modes in plasmas look like solar flares.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/natur...
(ELM's are distinctly like other cosmic plasma discharges, possibly even the sun.)
http://epsppd.epfl.ch/tarragona/pdf/p1_1...
(We have learned how to prevent Edge-Localized Modes from flaring.)
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?i...
Now, if solar flares are really Edge-Localized Modes in an electromagnetic plasma discharge, can we use the same principles we use in the lab to regulate or prevent solar flares?
What could we do with this technology and what would be the implications of this technology if we were able to produce it?
Could we eliminate solar flares and coronal mass ejections in order to limit damage to sensitive electronics in space, and to protect astronauts from (or limit exposure to) charged particles in local space?
Answer:
Man this is a far-fetched question.
I believe that we shouldnt worry about controlling solar flares, but instead should Sheild structures and other things. Especially out in space, labs, structures or vehicles. One way to do it is with an electromagnetic shield, if we can ever get those developed. That would provide excellent radiation shielding, also from the protons and things that are released at near speed of light when a flare goes off. Especially when a large flare goes off.
One way to control it is to build (somehow) an engine that envelops the entire sun, and uses its energy to power itself. This engine would have to be so complex and multi-layered that I couldnt even begin to explain it, because its about the only thing that would work. An interesting side point about being able to envelop the sun, is that in that same process you could use it as a nuclear reactor and siphon off electricity. With power levels that the sun could provide, we could experiment with energy weapons and possibly a way to Beam it to earth, eliminating the need for groundside power plants, especially the dirty ones.
Id say put a force field up that would catch any flare burps and recycle them back into the sun, keeping it stable. The field would allow all the spectrums to be released and with the same light intensity. Any less than what the earth recieves could mean economic and weather disasters and what not. As long as we could build such a force field that would contain the sun within some kind of high-powered bubble, the sun itself could power it without any external power source. Itd need one hell of a supercomputer to manage the fluxuations of the forces inside the field and to control the field itself. What a task thatd be.
Interesting articles and a good question.
Answering it is difficult since it sounds that you are smart enough to answer this question all by yourself, however I will humor you by answering it in hope of some mutual good emerging out of it.
1. Let’s say we can control ELMs in the lab or even built a functional fusion reactor were the control of ELM’s is nothing more than a high school physics curiosity.
2. How much energy does it take to control say n megawatts of ELM’s energy? Let say it takes a meager 1% to control ELM.
3. How much energy will it take to control a solar flare?
My point is that the Sun’s ELM is too powerful for us to control. Are you proposing we build a magnetic bottle around the Sun? I think not. And why we would control it. Effective shielding against solar flairs is another problem. I would put my money there.
On the brighter side if we could solve the fusion problem, or ELM problem specifically, and commercially produce a few billion kilowatts that would be really something. In my utopian mind I think say 14cents per kW would conceivably become say 1 cent per kW. Wouldn’t that be something?
Well, the sun is HUGE. Flares tend to be many times larger than the Earth itself. Controlling solar flares would imply that we are somehow controlling part of the sun's surface (and probably a significant portion of the sun beneath the surface, since the cause of the flares seem to originate deep within the sun itself).
I haven't run the numbers, but is seems that we would need more power than what the entire Earth could theoretically generate. That would seem to require technology that we haven't invented yet.
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