NOAA Alerts Public to Solar Storm Risk as Sunspot Activity Increases

The sun has been relatively inactive for about three weeks but has recently become more active, causing concern among astronomers and researchers. A new sunspot has emerged on the southeastern side of the Sun and has already caused an M4-class solar flare that resulted in radio blackouts on Earth on May 31. The sunspot is now moving towards Earth, heightening fears of severe solar storms.

In separate news, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a solar storm warning today, June 2. According to a SpaceWeather.com report, “NOAA forecasters say minor G1 geomagnetic storms are possible on June 2 when the solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. Gaseous material is pouring out of a hole in the atmosphere.” to the sun.”

The wrath of the sun stirs up fears on earth

Although the solar storm expected to hit Earth is a small storm, it could still damage GPS signals and small satellites. In addition, in rare cases they can even cause power outages on earth.

However, this solar storm is not even Earth’s biggest concern. In the coming weeks, a sunspot called AR3323 will collide with Earth. Due to the unstable magnetic field, it is highly likely that it will explode again in the next few days. If this happens, a stronger solar storm is highly likely.

Today’s solar storm can be very scary. It can disable GPS, cripple cell phone networks and the Internet, and even cause major blackouts by damaging power grids. Even electronic devices such as pacemakers and supercomputers are not immune to malfunctions.

Learn more about the GOES-16 satellite

GOES-16, formerly known as GOES-R before reaching geostationary orbit, is the first of the GOES-R series of operational geostationary environmental satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was launched on November 19, 2016 and became operational on December 18, 2017. GOES-16 is in geostationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean and provides continuous images and atmospheric measurements of the Earth’s Western Hemisphere. It also has a lightning map that can detect cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. GOES-16 is an important tool for weather forecasting, climate monitoring and space weather forecasting.