NASA Finds Huge Sunspot that Could Cause Extreme Solar Storms
If you’ve been wondering about the recent increase in solar activity, it’s important to know that scientists have predicted the peak of the current solar cycle to occur in mid-2025. This peak, known as the Solar Maximum, represents the time when solar activity reaches its highest point within the 12-year cycle. This also explains why there have been two separate solar flare incidents in the past day, both causing radio disruptions on Earth. Additionally, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has identified a concerning sunspot with a powerful delta charge that has the potential to erupt at any moment and release a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth, triggering intense solar storm activity.
According to a report by SpaceWeather.com, “There is now a sunspot facing Earth with multiple poles that have been mixed and pushed together… NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the magnetic architecture of sunspot AR3460. It has many magnetic poles with + and – pushed together in close proximity. This could lead to to magnetic reconnection and a strong Earth-directed solar flare.”
A massive sunspot emerges as a solar storm threat
Sunspots are the most common source of solar flares. We saw this last week when another infamous sunspot exploded, producing an M-class solar flare that sent a large coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Venus, consuming a small portion of its atmosphere. If this sunspot suffers a similar explosion, a potential solar storm could have a devastating effect on Earth.
Such strong solar flares can release a large number of CMEs, which, when they hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, can produce geomagnetic storms of up to G5 class. These storms can disrupt GPS, disrupt mobile networks and the Internet, and even cause massive blackouts by corrupting power grids. Even electronic devices on Earth are not safe.
The role of the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) houses a full suite of instruments for observing the Sun, and has done so since 2010. It uses three very important instruments to collect data on various solar activities. They include the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which measures high-resolution longitudinal and vector magnetic fields across the entire visible solar disk, the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), which measures the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet radiation, and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), which provides continuous full-disk observations of the solar chromosphere and the corona in seven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) channels.
