A massive solar flare slammed into the Earth on Friday, illuminating skies across the United States with a level of spectacular, colorful glow not seen in years or even decades.
The appearance of the aurora borealis, usually confined to states along the Canadian border during typical geomagnetic storms, reached as far as the Gulf Coast on Friday night, with pink, green and purple skies reported in Florida, Texas and Alabama. Ta.
SWPC says The satellite observed conditions that reached level 5 on a five-point scale. The magnitude of the geomagnetic activity Friday night was noted as an “extreme” event, the first time such a storm has reached that level since October 2003.
Conditions then returned to a Level 4 storm by Saturday morning. More geomagnetic activity is heading towards Earth Additional solar flares over the weekend could continue into early next week.
NOAA observes yet another massive X-class solar flare It was announced by The Sun on Friday evening and was rated X5.4 on the scale, making it one of the strongest flares of recent activity.
In addition to producing vivid and widespread displays of auroras, geomagnetic storms can affect near-Earth orbit and surface infrastructure, disrupting communications, power grids, navigation, radio and satellite operations, SWPC said. There is.
The last time Earth experienced a Level 5 geomagnetic event, it caused a power outage in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.
“We have notified all of the infrastructure operators that we work with, including the satellite operators, the communications community, and of course the power grid here in North America,” SWPC Coordinator Sean Dahl said Friday. “So if things escalate to the level that we’re currently anticipating, they can and will be ready to take mitigation measures as much as possible throughout this event.”
space x Starlink service warns on website It was announced Saturday morning that there was a “degradation of service,” but no details were provided. However, SpaceX chief Elon Musk previously posted on X that the Starlink satellites were still holding up despite being under significant pressure from the geomagnetic storm.
Giant sunspot 17 times larger than Earth causes multiple flares
Two giant sunspots recently merged, ejecting at least three X-class (largest) and several M-class (second largest) solar flares. According to NOAA, explosive accelerations of charged, superheated plasma, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), accelerate and expand through space.
The diameter of the new sunspot is 17 times that of Earth.
“These two sunspot groups are magnetically complex and much larger than Earth. Together they are responsible for frequent M-class flares (mild to moderate),” the Space Weather Prediction Center said. states. “RGN 3664 (the combined sunspot region) continues to grow, becoming more magnetically complex and evolving into a larger threat with increased risk of solar flares.”
Amid multiple solar flares, NOAA space weather forecasters have observed at least seven CMEs from the Sun, with the first impact arriving early Friday afternoon ET. High solar conditions are expected to continue, possibly through Sunday.
“This is an unusual and potentially historic event,” SPWC said.
Another sunspot also emitted a strong CME this week and remains active. According to NOAA, most of the five CMEs will crash into Earth in a flash sometime between Friday and Sunday at noon.
How flares cause magnetic storms
“A flare is when the sun gets brighter and you see radiation, but it’s like a muzzle flash,” Peter Becker, a professor at George Mason University, explained in a previous interview. “And that cannonball is the coronal mass ejection (CME). So you see the flash, but then the ejection of coronal mass can happen in random directions in space, but when they actually head towards Earth. And we’ll have about 18, maybe 24 hours of warning before those particles reach Earth and start disrupting Earth’s magnetic field.”
NOAA warns that high-frequency radio communications could be disrupted over a wide area for several hours. Geomagnetic storms can also cause widespread voltage anomalies in power systems, which can cause false alarms for security devices, create drag on low-orbit satellites and cause them to become misoriented, and cause ranging errors and This may cause the GPS system to lose lock.
X-class solar flares are the largest explosions in the solar system. According to NASA, the largest X-class flare could produce as much energy as 1 billion atomic bombs.
M-class flares are the second most powerful flare and can cause small radiation storms that can harm astronauts.
solar cycle peak, More solar storms will occur
Tree rings and ice cores are evidence of much larger solar superstorms in the past.
In 1859, the Great Carrington event, generally considered the largest solar storm in recent Earth history, blanketed nearly the entire Earth in auroras.
About 14,000 years ago, a solar flare, perhaps hundreds of times more powerful than the Carrington flare, impacted Earth.
NOAA predicts that the current 11-year solar cycle will peak sometime in 2024 or early 2025, and solar activity could remain high for months and even years. There is a gender.
