coronal mass ejection

Geomagnetic storms can wreak havoc on Earth as they have the power to destroy all the communications and electrical infrastructure on Earth and even the satellites up in the sky. And Earth has been, and is being, continuously bombarded by Geomagnetic storms, and not a single week has gone by without one incident of solar particles hitting our atmosphere recently. In fact, the year 2023 has been an eventful year for astronomers and skywatchers and you too should know what these storms are all about.So, do you know what…

On June 20, an X1.1-class solar flare erupted on the Sun, making it one of the biggest explosions seen this year. The flare sparked a shortwave radio blackout across North America that affected wireless communications for as long as 30 minutes after the flare first erupted. NASA also spotted a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) cloud escaping after the blast. This CME is extremely potent and has been classified as Type II solar emission. This dangerous CME is capable of delivering an extremely dangerous solar storm.…

Just yesterday, an unstable sunspot named AR3335 exploded, producing a solar flare that triggered blackouts over the Atlantic Ocean. The resulting solar flare was M2.5 in intensity and caused a shortwave radio blackout. Solar activity has been on the rise for the past few months, and it is expected to increase further until solar maximum, the period of greatest solar activity during the Sun's 11-year cycle. Solar flare riskAccording to a report by spaceweather.com, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) forecasters have…

Solar activity has been at a high in the last few months and that is probably due to the approaching Solar Maximum. Sun entered solar cycle 25 in 2019 and it is expected that it will hit its peak in July 2025, thus resulting in increased solar activity even further during the peak. Therefore, we can expect solar phenomena such as sunspot eruptions, solar storms, solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and more, to bombard Earth.Recently, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have issued a…

The Earth continues to wait for the big cloud of coronal mass ejections (CME) that is expected to hit between June 7-8 and spark a minor solar storm. In the last couple of weeks, our planet has witnessed a very low amount of solar activity, although it is expected to pick up soon with as many as eight sunspots present on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. But nobody knows when the next big solar storm might come. So, we decided to ask the AI chatbot Google Bard to see if he has any information about it. And unexpectedly,…

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…

The last ten days have been quite peaceful for the Earth. Solar activity has been at a minimum despite two active sunspots staring down at our planet. One of them, AR3315, is as large as 5 times the size of the Earth and was feared to explode producing an X-class solar flare. However, it did not and now the latest predictions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have revealed that much of the unstable magnetic field has decayed, and chances of an X-class flare no longer exist. However, there is…

For the last three days, scientists have been looking at two dangerous sunspots that have been threatening the Earth with a potential X-class solar flare eruption, but luckily, they have not exploded yet. But one of them, sunspot AR3311, blasted an M1.9-class flare four days ago, as it was beginning to face the Earth. The coronal mass ejection (CME) from the eruption is now expected to hit our planet today, May 27, as per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This means another attack by these…

As astronomers continue to monitor the sunspot AR3311 for any signs of eruption, a new sunspot is making a mark on the Sun. This new sunspot was practically invisible to the telescopes of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But in just 24 hours, it has grown as big as four Earths combined! This exponential growth is also due to the huge amount of unstable magnetic field it harbors within itself. Scientists had been expecting an X-class solar flare and a resultant solar storm from the…

2023 has been an eventful year for astronomers and skywatchers. Not only have we witnessed several big asteroids pass by Earth at close distances, but other sky phenomena such as auroras have mesmerized us too. The planet has been continuously bombarded by solar storms since the turn of the year and not a single week has gone by without at least one incident being reported of solar particles hitting the atmosphere. Now, a geomagnetic storm surprised astronomers, and it sparked stunning red auroras which lit up the sky as…