Sun emitting dangerous flares; strong geomagnetic storm could hit Earth soon
As the Sun begins its new solar cycle, the giant ball of fire sends deadly flares our way. The Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from which the Sun unleashed X1-class flares was photographed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
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FollowFollowing a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun late Thursday night, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm notice for October 30 on Friday. The CME will take more than two days to cross the sun-Earth separation and is expected to strike the planet on October 30.
"On October 30, a G3 (Strong) geomagnetic storm watch has been issued. A G2 (Moderate) watch is in force for October 31 due to the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from Region 2887 connected with the X1 flare," according to a statement issued by the agency.
As the Sun begins its new solar cycle, the giant ball of fire sends deadly flares our way. The Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from which the Sun unleashed X1-class flares was photographed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
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The coronagraphs, which monitor the Sun's outer atmosphere, captured the CMEs speeding away from the Sun at speeds of up to 1,260 kilometres per second. Shock waves at the CME's leading-edge pushed these particles toward Earth. The protons arrived in less than an hour, travelling at relativistic speeds. The burst on the Sun unleashed a tremendous tsunami of plasma that rippled over the whole solar disc, with the plasma wave spanning around 100,000 km in height and flowing through the Sun's atmosphere at speeds exceeding 700 kilometres per second.
Coronal mass ejection is one of the largest eruptions from the Sun's surface, capable of containing a billion tonnes of stuff pushed into space at several million miles per hour. This solar material is ejected into the interplanetary medium, crashing onto any planet or spacecraft in its path. When a very powerful CME passes close to Earth, it can destroy the electronics in our satellites and impair radio communication networks on the ground.
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A geomagnetic storm, according to NASA, is a severe disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere that happens when there is a particularly efficient interchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment around Earth. The most powerful storms caused by these circumstances are connected with solar coronal mass ejections. A billion tonnes or so of plasma from the Sun and its underlying magnetic field reach Earth.
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