Solar storm DANGER! NOAA satellites capture CME clouds rushing towards Earth
After a brief period of calm, the Sun has sprung back into action. On June 4, an explosion on the surface of the Sun hurled a large cloud of coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. Unfortunately, it was directed towards the Earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected the incident using its satellites and issued a solar storm alert on June 7 and 8. Notably, this is going to be the first solar storm of June and the first one in almost two weeks. Know what you should expect.
As per a report by SpaceWeather.com, “NOAA forecasters say that a CME might hit Earth's magnetic field late on June 7th or June 8th. It was hurled into space on June 4th by an erupting filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere”. The resultant geomagnetic storm is expected to be between G1 and G2-class intensity.
The Sun has become a hotbed of sunspots. Right now, there are eight sunspots on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. These sunspots have been frequently exploding, producing solar flares. In the last two weeks, these solar flares have been minor but on June 4, a huge filament of magnetism threw a large amount of CME into space.
The concerns are largely because the current solar cycle is expected to reach its peak by early next year. That means the solar activity will likely ramp up in the months to come. And that can produce a terrifying G5-class geomagnetic storm. For the unaware, such storms can disrupt GPS, hamper mobile networks and the internet, and even cause a massive power outage by corrupting the power grids. Even the electronic devices on Earth are not safe from malfunctioning.
Luckily, the solar storm predicted for June 7 and 8 is not likely to be that powerful, but GPS disruption and radio
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