Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The strongest solar storm occurred in early October 2024 and affected Earth. According to the NASA report, the peak of the solar flare, known as X9.05, occurred on October 3, 2024 at 08.10 am EDT or 19.18 WIB.
The impact is felt in many regions on Earth. This phenomenon is said to have caused a shortwave radio blackout in Africa and Europe, which are the parts of the Earth that were lit by the Sun when the eruption occurred.
Sunlight X9.05 comes from the AR3842 sunspot group. On October 1, 2024, the same sunspot region released a solar flare of magnitude X7.1.
This phenomenon releases a coronal mass ejection (CME) or plume of plasma and a magnetic field hurtling towards the Earth. The incoming CME is expected to hit Earth between October 3rd and October 5th.
This event is likely to trigger widespread auroras, announced from Space, on Friday (4/10/2024).
The CME aimed at Earth followed a ‘monster’ flare, confirmed space weather reporter and meteorologist Sara Housseal in a post on X.
This could be good news for aurora hunters, as CMEs can trigger geomagnetic storms that can greatly increase aurora displays.
“So far, I expect impacts on Earth in the late 5th to early 6th,” Housseal wrote.
CMEs carry electrically charged particles called ions. When they collide with the Earth’s magnetosphere, these particles can trigger geomagnetic storms.
During these storms, ions interact with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light. This phenomenon is called the northern lights or aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as the southern lights, or aurora australis, in the Southern Hemisphere.
The shortwave radio blackouts that occurred in Europe and Africa were the result of solar flare radiation reaching the Earth and ionizing the upper atmosphere when they arrived.
This ionization creates a denser environment for high-frequency short-wave radio signals, enabling long-distance communication. When these radio waves pass through the ionized (electronized) layer, they lose energy due to more collisions with electrons, which can weaken or absorb the radio signal. in completely.
The peak solar flare recorded on October 3 was the most powerful in the solar cycle so far. In fact, this was the most powerful solar flare in the past seven years.
In September 2017, two large flares with magnitudes X13.3 and X11.8 were reported to have occurred during the previous solar cycle’s decline phase.
For your information, solar flares are classified according to their size into different classes, with class X flares being the most powerful.
Class M beacons are 10 times weaker than class B and cause no real impact on Earth.
Each class is further divided by a number from 1 to 10 (and so on for class X lamps) to indicate the relative strength of the lamp.
Impact of solar storms on Indonesia
For Indonesian citizens, the effects of solar storms will not be as great as in high latitude areas such as around the Earth’s poles. This was expressed by the Space Center Researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Johan Muhammad.
It is known that Indonesia is located at the equator or the central part which is far from the Earth’s poles. However, this does not mean that Indonesia is completely free from the effects of solar storms.
Johan said space weather will have a major impact on interference with high frequency (HF) radio signals and satellite navigation.
“In Indonesia, space weather due to solar activity can disrupt communication between HF radio users and reduce the accuracy of satellite-based navigation positions, such as GPS,” said Johan, quoted by CNN Indonesia, based on the site- BRIN web.
(fab/fab)
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