NASA: Giant Solar Storm to hit Earth; freakish Sunspot set to shoot more
NASA: New developments on the Sun have scientists worried on Earth. A particularly large and very active sunspot has rotated to face the Earth. The central region of this sunspot, labeled AR2975, is as large as two Earths put together. It is now feared that this sunspot, which is an active zone of solar activity, will result in numerous solar storms or geomagnetic storms targeted at our home planet. The sunspot has already shot multiple C-class solar flares and an M-class solar flare in the last couple of days. The latter even caused a brief shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia. But the scariest among them all is a gigantic coronal mass ejection (CME) which was hurled towards Earth. According to NASA, the resultant solar storm will hit Earth tomorrow, March 27.
Scientists remain cautious, even as they state that the geomagnetic storm activity will be a minor one and only result in aurora display in the northern hemisphere at higher latitudes. The concerns are serious as the risk of an X-class solar flare activity also remains high. For the uninitiated, solar flares are divided into 4 classes in increasing intensity. B-class is the lowest tier and is too small to harm Earth. C-class solar flares can cause few noticeable consequences for Earth with northern lights being the primary one. M-class solar flares can give out solar storms which can cause brief radio blackouts and minor damage to satellites in direct range. Finally, X-class solar flares can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.
On March 27, the solar storm resulting from the CME hurled towards Earth will be striking down on the Earth according to NASA. Most estimates highlight that it will be a moderate geomagnetic storm
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