According to a research, sudden releases of high-energy particles from the sun, called solar storms, can mess with the navigational ability of gray whales, causing them to strand on land.
Solar storms
- Solar storms are a variety of eruptions of mass and energy from the solar surface.
- Flares, prominences, sunspots, coronal mass ejections are the common harbingers of solar activity, as are plages and other related phenomena seen at other wavelengths.
Impact on Whales
- Solar storms have the potential to modify geomagnetic field and disrupt magnetic orientation behaviour of animals, hampering their navigation during long periods of migration.
- They disrupt earth’s magnetic field — and the whales’ navigational sense.
- The radio frequency noise created by the solar outburst affects the whales’ senses in a way that prevents them from navigating at all.
