The Sun is increasing its activity and that implies technical complications for communications and other technological systems that people around the world depend on, including in Spain. In recent days there has been a flare and a solar ejection, the first one has been slight and has only caused some radio outagesbut the second is expected to be more intense and hit Earth in the next few hours.
Sunday May 7th at At 6:54 pm EDT, at 0:54 am in the Iberian Peninsula the sun was emitting a solar flare of medium intensity. According to Spaceweather.com the impact was not significant on Earth earlier in the week, producing only a small blackout that radio amateurs or sailors may have noticed in the northern United States. Nevertheless, followed by an ejection or CME which would be stronger and it is estimated that it will impact on Wednesday, May 10 in the morning.
The frequency and intensity of these solar storms is increasing as the sun is approaching its most active phase, which is called “solar maximum” and will take place throughout 2024. Several space missions and large telescopes study these phenomena and work is being done to protect terrestrial communications such as orbital satellites that could be affected. SpaceX lost 40 recently launched satellite equipment a year ago due to this phenomenon.
coming storm
As he explains Spaceweather.comthe CME model (coronal mass ejection of the Sun) generated by NASA predicts that the latter will make landfall in the early morning of May 10 for United States time, that is, during the morning in Spain. “The impact could cause moderate (G2) to strong (G3) geomagnetic storms,” says the specialized medium.
Solar flares are bright bursts of electromagnetic radiation emitted by sunspots and are associated with communications blackouts. Depending on its strength and scope, this solar activity can become another danger to the Solar System against this inhabited planet and all its technological advances.
On the contrary, CMEs are ejections of plasma and magnetized particles from the sun they travel more slowly through space and have other effects, but the two often coincide together as they did this time. These usually give humanity the spectacle of the auroras that paint the night sky in bright colors, but when they are very strong they can also generate a geomagnetic storm and interfere with electrical infrastructures.
The active region of the Sun exploded on May 7, producing a Earth-directed long-duration M1.5-class solar flare. This explosion also launched a CME which is the one that will impact next Wednesday. Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere, producing a small shortwave radio blackout over the western US and Pacific Ocean below 20 MHz.
studying the sun
The Canary Islands are part of the network of telescopes that in different parts of the planet study solar activity in order to understand and predict these phenomena. China has also recently launched a huge surveillance ring that observes these solar ejections with 313 large dishes.
In addition to the immense spectacle that is the aurorae, and with CME being the last one you can see much further towards Earth’s equator than usual, such as near New York, solar activity can be a risk. Satellites, telephone networks, the internet and many other electronic infrastructures are threatened for this phenomenon that will grow in the following years.
It is estimated that the ejections occur in periods of approximately 11 years, when the Sun is in its phases of greatest magnetic activity, also known as “solar maximums”. All these surveillance systems are prepared to send alerts and protect terrestrial communications on which many industries and services depend, such as transportation or the Internet in general.
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2023-05-09 08:24:33
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