However, it is the weakest of the five classified by NOAA.
Geomagnetic storms are caused by a coronal hole in the southwestern region of the sun’s face spewing ‘gaseous material’.
Mike Cook, who works in space weather operations, said the hole had increased the speed of the solar wind.
Cook also noted that it was expected to lead to a G-1 condition, but we’ll have to ‘see if that becomes a reality in the next 24 to 48 hours.’
NOAA’s space weather prediction center classifies geometric storms in five stages.
This may confuse migrating animals who use the Earth’s magnetic field as a navigational tool.
This is because geomagnetic storms trigger electric currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere as the area formed by the Earth’s magnetic field is compressed and disturbed.
There’s also a C9.3 flare coming out of the sun on Sunday. A small C class beacon with little real consequence on Earth, but very interesting to look at.
However, this one did not erupt on the side of the sun facing Earth, but exploded enough to be captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory – a craft that has been investigating our massive star since its launch in 2010.
It takes 169,090 hours to reach the sun if you travel about 550 miles per hour.
Read Also: Is it true that Kominfo can snoop on conversations on WhatsApp after the PSE is enforced?
‘Yesterday’s C9.3 flare came from a region that technically isn’t even in the Earth-facing disk yet, it’s just around the NE [timur laut] extremities,’ Cook told Dailymail.com.
‘And the solar flare itself does not cause a geomagnetic storm, only if the CME (coronal mass ejection) is associated with the flare AND is directed towards Earth.
The snake-like filament is CME, which is a massive ejection of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona – the outermost layer of a star’s atmosphere.
Earth experienced a solar storm on July 19 that brought a stunning aurora to the northern US and Canada.
The storm made headlines over the weekend when Dr Tamitha Skov announced he saw ‘snake-like filaments’ on the sun’s surface Friday – and it was moving toward Earth’s attack zone.
The aurora was spotted early on Friday morning, just as the storm hit, filling the northern skies with stunning shades of electric purple and green.
Earlier on July 19, Cook said, “There have been several CME eruptions [coronal mass ejections] the last few days (solar storms) but there is also a Coronal Hole (a black hole-like structure) which is the central disk. We will see the impact of that in the next 2-3 days.”
And sure enough, the cosmic show isn’t over yet.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) indicates G1-Class is expected to impact our planet on Thursday and late Friday.
–
