Will Earth get hit with a major solar storm? Risk of blackout arises after eight sunspots emerge on the Sun
The activities in the solar system attract many. They might seem intriguing to many while to others the process taking place up in the sky are pretty scary. The month of June has witnessed a number of events including a solar storm. A few days back, a massive solar flare took place from Earth's stay. Due to the same, sunspot AR3032 exploded and produced M3-class flares which lasted for about eight hours. Due to the same, a massive flare hurtled towards the Earth and ionized the top of the atmosphere with its extreme UV radiation. This resulted in a shortwave radio blackout over Japan and southeast Asia. Well, if you think it's over, then probably you are wrong. Things are again heating up in the sun due to which eight new sunspots have emerged on the Earth-facing side of the solar disk.
The solar activity is slowly increasing day by day and will increase significantly this week. Due to this, there are possibilities that X-class solar flares and radiation storms can pose a harmful impact on the GPS system.
Dr Tamitha Skov, popularly known as the Space weather woman analysed the sun and gave out her predictions for the week. In a post she stated, "Our Sun continues to impress with no less than eight active regions in Earth-view. Several of these are M-flare players and NOAA/SWPC is even giving us a small chance for X-class flares."
The post further talked about the effect of the same and read, "Now we are coming down from the effects of that solar storm and dealing with some unsettled wind in the wake of the storm. Aurora photographers at high latitudes should continue to get some light aurora views through the weekend, but photographers at mid-latitudes will likely need to wait for the next storm to launch.
GPS users should remain vigilant near dawn and dusk as radio blackouts will continue to be an issue over this next week, but amateur radio operators will appreciate the boosted solar flux that will keep dayside radio propagation in the green all week. "
What is a solar storm?
According to Wikipedia, "A solar storm is a disturbance on the Sun, which can emanate outward across the heliosphere, affecting the entire Solar System, including Earth and its magnetosphere, and is the cause of space weather in the short-term with long-term patterns comprising space climate."
