Saving Civilisation from Solar Storms (QLM Christmas Lecture)

In December 2023 QLM members Steven Wrathmall and Ifan Hughes gave the Physics Department’s Christmas lectures. 400 local school children came to see the talk entitled “Decoding the Spectrum: Saving Civilisation from Solar Storms”. Dani Pizzey helped plan the talk and prepare the demonstrations.

Solar flares pose a serious threat to modern-day civilisation. Space weather forecasting helps us to limit the potentially catastrophic damage caused by such events. We need a way to measure the magnetic field of the Sun from a distance of 93 million miles. In the lecture Steve and Ifan explained how we have learned about most of the Universe – by decoding the information in the radiation arriving at Earth. Research done in QLM to realise the narrowest atomic filters was highlighted, in addition to building a solar telescope with our colleagues form the Centre For Advanced Instrumentation (CFAI).