Scientists have confirmed that a number of geomagnetic storms will hit Earth this week.
Geomagnetic storms are caused by the emission of solar corona into space, resulting in obstruction of the Earth’s upper atmosphere and increased gravitational pull on objects in lower orbits.
The storm, a large cloud of charged particles that will fly from the sun at a speed of about 4.5 million miles per hour (7.2 million km per hour), will be formed by a pair of solar flares, scientists said.
This is probably the strongest event in nearly six years and is more severe than the one in late January, said Joseph Kunches, a space meteorologist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This is a three-phase case of solar disturbance, or as Kanches put it in a telephone interview from Boulder, Colorado: “We hit Trifacta.”
In the first phase, two solar flares traveling at almost the speed of light reached Earth late Tuesday. Such flares can cause radio blackouts.
Then, on Wednesday, solar radiation struck the Earth’s magnetic field, potentially affecting air traffic, especially near the poles, near satellites, and any astronauts orbiting in space. This phase can last for a few days.
Finally, a plasma cloud sent by coronal mass ejection, which is basically a large part of the Sun’s atmosphere, is expected to reach Earth early on Thursday.
This phase could disrupt the high-precision GPS system used by power grids, satellites, oil pipelines and oil drillers, surveyors and some agricultural operations, the scientists said.
The spacecraft has approximately 4,000 active satellites, spread over 1,200 miles from the surface, as well as 15,000 rocket bodies and clusters like defunct probes, according to space industry analyst Serradata.
According to NOAA’s Doug Biesiecker, GPS systems used for less-sophisticated tasks, such as turn-by-turn navigation in many cars, should not be affected.
Kunches said the storm’s geomagnetic factor could be a little ahead of schedule as it follows an earlier storm that left the sun on Sunday and is currently pushing the Earth’s magnetic field.
“When you already have a coronal mass ejection storm, sometimes the next coronal mass ejection storm is fast approaching,” Kunch said.
According to experts, these storms can cause some burning auroras. In the Northern Hemisphere, Aurora borealis may appear at mid-latitudes, including New York, Illinois and Iowa in the United States.
According to Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, the weather in such stormy spaces is unusual in recent history.
“These relatively large (solar) events, which we’ve had a handful of total in a decade, now have two or three of them, more or less on top of each other,” Spence said by telephone.
The Sun is at the peak of its 11-year solar activity cycle, peaking next year, scientists said.
“It’s a clear sign that the sun is rising,” Spence said. “We are only trying to present this in context … what the sun has done in the past, but what is the biggest thing that the sun is capable of and what should we plan in case of extreme events. In the future. “