ANSWERS: 2
  • I assume you re talking about the Earth's magnetic field. As I understand it, current view is that not that solar storms would affect the Earth's magnetic field. This is caused by currents, bot electrical and physical, within the Earth's liquid iron core. The problem is that if, due to poorly-understood mechanisms deep down, the magnetic field reverses, it will pass through a state in which the magnetic field is zero, or nearly so. This matters, because the the magnetic field protects us from the solar wind: incoming charged particles from the sun are swept away from the inhabited areas towards the poles, where they create the Auroras. If the magnetic field died away, this protective effect would disappear. This would result in a significant increase in the number of solar particles hitting inhabited areas. This would increase cancer rates, and cause problems for electrical equipment. But by how much? Planed routinely fly across the poles, and the Inuit do not seem to have an inordinately high level of cancer. There are scare stories that power lines (which do not run across the poles) might, because of their huge length, be specially vulnerable to solar storms. Aside from this, the effects will be small, IMO.
  • As a result of any solar storm, the earth's magnetic polarity will not change.

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