Earth is in the splash zone as the solar cycle progresses and the sun spews plasma into the vacuum of space. The Space Weather Prediction Center (Noaa) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has forecast a solar radiation storm for Wednesday and Thursday as the sun spews filaments of plasma from a creek that erupted at the surface on Sunday.
In response to the expected arrival of the coronal mass ejection from the eruption of the strand near S22W30 on the sun, a US-based space observer has raised the alarm for a mild geomagnetic storm. Protons, levels reaching the S1 (Minor) threshold, could erupt a solar radiation storm on Earth, according to the agency.
Based on the reportsthe geomagnetic storm is expected to last through April 7, leading to grid irregularities, a modest impact on satellites in low Earth orbit and the onset of auroras at higher elevations.
Minor radio disturbances can be caused by the geomagnetic storm. Geomagnetic storms are major disturbances of the Earth’s magnetosphere that occur when the energy from the solar wind is efficiently transferred to the space environment that surrounds the planet.
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According to Space Weather, the current source of the eruption is a place known as the canyon of fire, a dark filament of magnetism that eventually opened into the sun’s atmosphere. The canyon walls are at least 20,000 kilometers high and ten times as long.
G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for April 6-7. pic.twitter.com/ft9XyK4pa1
— NOAA Space Weather (@NWSSWPC) Apr 4, 2022
A filament burst on April 3 launched a faint asymmetric coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The NOAA SWPC has modeled the plasma cloud and expects an impact on Wednesday, April 6. Small G1 geomagnetic storm conditions are possible after the cloud arrives. pic.twitter.com/qIgO6sulRj
— SpaceWeatherLive (@_SpaceWeather_) Apr 5, 2022
Experts estimate that portions of the magnetic filaments will erupt as Earth-facing CMEs from the explosion site. While most of the CME will avoid Earth, some of it will impact, but the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory photographed an asymmetric full-halo CME from the site of the blast.
“On April 5 or 6, part of the storm cloud appears to be traveling toward Earth and could hit our planet’s magnetic field. A modest G1 class geomagnetic storm could be triggered by a flashing blow,” SpaceWeather said during its observation.
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An identical eruption occurred on Monday. Experts aren’t sure whether the CME will affect Earth or not. This isn’t the first time Earth has been hit by a geomagnetic storm; the frequency of space weather events has increased as the sun’s new solar cycle ramps up activity.
While the one going to Earth is expected to be modest, SpaceX Starlink satellites were hit hard earlier this year. When a CME from the sun collided with Earth’s orbit, 40 Starlink satellites were destroyed in space.
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