Solar Flares Cause Widespread Blackouts on Earth; Is Another Solar Storm Imminent?
Increased solar activity has been observed on the Sun, which may have negative implications for Earth. Presently, a coronal mass ejection (CME) is heading towards our planet and is expected to impact on Sunday, September 17. However, prior to its arrival, additional solar flares have occurred on the Sun. Specifically, two separate M-class solar flares erupted in the well-known sunspot region AR3429, which has already generated numerous solar flares. The intense radiation emitted by these solar flares caused disruptions in radio communication on Earth. Scientists are now investigating the possibility of another CME being directed towards our planet and whether it could trigger another solar storm.
explosions from solar flares trigger fears of a solar storm
The data comes from SpaceWeatherLive’s official X account, which posted about the first solar flare today, September 16, at 4:18 a.m. It was found to be a moderate solar flare with a magnitude of M.173. It caused a short-wave radio outage in the Pacific for a short time. A second Solar Flare was observed at 6:39 a.m. when a more powerful M2.92 flare exploded. Australia and New Zealand were also affected by this radio blackout. Drone pilots, mariners, amateur radio operators and emergency operators, all using shortwave radio frequencies, would have suffered temporary disruption.
With such intense solar activity, there is a high chance that one of these eruptions will also release a CME. And if we’re unlucky enough to be caught in a powerful solar storm, it can destroy small satellites, disrupt GPS and cell phone networks, damage Internet infrastructure, cause power grid outages, and even damage sensitive ground-based electronics.
How NASA SOHO observes the Sun
NASA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is a satellite that was launched on December 2, 1995. It is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) that studies the Sun, its atmosphere and its effects on the Solar System. . 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 the sun’s speed and magnetic fields. On the surface of the Sun and observes the faint corona around the Sun.
