A giant cloud of magnetized plasma erupted from a sunspot hidden on the far side of the Sun could face Earth just two days from now, so get ready for some solar fireworks.
rear bang SundayOn Tuesday (January 3) morning the east end was a so-called coronal mass ejection (CME), a burst of particles from the Sun’s upper atmosphere, or corona. Dabangg was with CME Sun flare It lasted six hours, solar scientist Keith Strong said on twitter (opens in new tab),
Neither the flare nor the CME was directed at Earth, but experts warn it is lurking freckle The one who generated them will soon face the planet as the Sun rotates.
related: Extreme solar storms can appear out of the blue. Are we really ready?
Sunspots are dark regions in the Sun’s lower atmosphere that are cooler than the rest of the Sun’s disk and feature dense and complex magnetic field lines. When these magnetic field lines break, sunspots release solar flares in the form of bright flashes of light and CMEs. A solar flare travels at the speed of light, so if it is directed it reaches our planet within eight minutes. CMEs, on the other hand, move slowly through space, arriving within two to three days. Solar flares can disrupt radio communications on our planet without warning, but it’s the CMEs that experts fear most. The magnetic plasma from the CME interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, causing all kinds of unwanted effects on technology, including power blackouts, GPS disruption, and satellite malfunctions. However, these interactions are also the cause of mesmerizing displays of aurorae, or auroras.
CME-Watch – 2023.01.03: As predicted the large flare behind the eastern limb (see earlier tweet) produced a very large, violent and fast CME. There is a second spectacular event, albeit a slower one, but at the end of the video the southwest is off the limb. pic.twitter.com/bobunGdhFWJanuary 4, 2023
Yesterday’s flare and CME were detected by several Sun-observing spacecraft, including the joint NASA/European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission (SOHO) and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory,
The measurements helped scientists determine that the sunspot, or active region, that produced the burst would move to the Earth-facing part of the Sun’s disk within two days. space weather (opens in new tab), The active region may, in fact, already be known to solar scientists. In December, a sunspot named AR3163, which at the time was larger than our planet, crossed the Sun’s disk before disappearing from view for about two weeks. This sunspot is now expected to re-emerge and scientists think it may have become even more powerful than it has been since we last saw it.
Meanwhile, plasma from a CME that erupted from the Sun on December 30 reached Earth today (January 4), triggering a minor geomagnetic storm that may appear slightly further away from its usual location around the poles Is.
british space weather forecaster weather office forecast Reduced solar activity over the next few days with a possible increase later this week as mysterious sunspots emerge on the Sun’s eastern edge.
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