3 MASSIVE solar storms smacked into Earth; More to come? NASA reveals the truth
Yesterday, an unstable sunspot named AR3450 was spotted coming towards the Earth. It was estimated that any explosions within this region that could lead to a coronal mass ejection (CME) would be geoeffective and could lead to a solar storm event. However, it has not gone off so far and no solar flare activity has been noted. While astrophysicists are keeping an eye on it, a new report has highlighted that the month of September witnessed as many as three separate solar storm events, with two of them being significantly intense to the point of reaching the mid-latitude regions. With the peak of the 11-year Solar Cycle, the Solar Maximum, approaching soon, will the month of October be worse? We take a look at the data from the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to know what's coming our way.
As per NASA SDO data, at present, the Sun appears to be calm. Yet, images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), an instrument aboard SDO that enables scientists to see the Sun in different wavelengths, at the 193 and 304 Angstrom wavelengths show some interesting development. A long and dark whip-like structure can be seen in the northern hemisphere of the Sun, indicating a particularly unstable region that can explode.
The data does not provide us an outlook for the entire month, as no solar storm prediction or forecast models can describe them with our current technology, it does point out that potential for solar activity remains as high as the previous month. This means there is a chance that October can also see spells of solar storm strikes.
According to a report by SpaceWeather.com, “The sun has been buffeting Earth with CMEs. In September there were three significant strikes, each one sparking a geomagnetic storm with
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