NASA Reports Increase in Solar Storm Troubles Due to Solar Flare Eruptions and Coronal Mass Ejections
The Sun has been displaying continuous solar activity for the past three days, with no signs of slowing down. Following a minor solar storm on Monday and three separate solar flare eruptions on Tuesday, the last 24 hours have also been filled with similar activity. Yesterday, December 6, a stronger solar flare erupted, surpassing any seen earlier in the week. Additionally, data from NASA suggests that a separate ‘sigmoid eruption’ may have propelled a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth. This CME has the potential to trigger a solar storm on December 9, according to early forecasts. More accurate predictions will be available in the coming hours.
According to a post on Space Weather Live’s official X account, a moderate M2.35 solar flare erupted 7 hours ago, triggering a shortwave radio outage. But fortunately, the geopotential zone fell on a large unobstructed area of the Pacific Ocean.
The threat of a solar storm
The impact of the solar flare is gone, but the danger of a solar storm still hovers overhead. According to a report by SpaceWeather.com, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the sigmoidal eruption yesterday. The S-shaped magnetic filament, which is considered a powerful discharge, creates a splash more than 100,000 kilometers wide when it erupts.
“This *might* have thrown a weak CME toward Earth. We’re not sure because several CMEs left the Sun at the time of the explosion, and there was a lot of confusion. Don’t be surprised if a sigmoidal CME makes a weak but direct hit to Earth’s magnetic field on December 9 ”, the report emphasized.
How NASA SOHO observes the Sun
NASA’s SOHO is a satellite launched on December 2, 1995. It is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to study the Sun, its atmosphere, and its effects on the Solar System. SOHO is equipped with 12 scientific instruments such as Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph) and others. SOHO takes pictures of the sun’s corona, measures speed and magnetic fields. of the sun’s surface and observes the faint corona around the Sun.
