On Friday, May 10, a powerful solar storm made landfall on Earth. Its effects will be felt this weekend and next week. The strongest geomagnetic storm in the past 20 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, has not only damaged power infrastructure in South Africa and caused blackouts in Sweden, but it has also threatened to cause more disruptions to communication and power grids in the days ahead. Let us know if this storm affects India in any way, even if it has had a major impact in places like Tasmania and Britain, where it has caused the Northern Lights.
Solar Storm Leads To Disrupted Communication
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and operators of spacecraft and power stations in orbit were notified by NOAA to take protective measures. “The majority of people on Earth won’t need to take any action,” stated Rob Steenburgh, a scientist affiliated with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Dahl informed reporters that this storm is more likely to affect high-voltage transmission lines used by power grids than residential electrical lines. Additionally, there is a chance that satellites will be impacted, which could interfere with Earthly navigation and communication services.
According to NOAA, transmissions between GPS satellites and ground receivers may be lost or jumbled even after the storm has passed. However, Steenburgh pointed out that since there are so many navigation satellites, any disruptions ought to be brief. Certain NASA science satellites may also be in danger from rising radiation. According to Antti Pulkkinen, head of the space agency’s heliophysics science section, extremely sensitive sensors would be shut off if necessary to prevent damage.
The Northern Lights In The US
According to NOAA, the storm may cause northern lights as far south in the United States as Alabama and Northern California. However, it was difficult to forecast and experts emphasized that it might resemble greenish hue splashes rather than the vivid color curtains typically associated with the northern lights.
Steenburgh remarked, “That’s the gift from space, whether the aurora.” According to him and his colleagues, phone cameras may provide the best images of the aurora since they are more adept at capturing light than the human eye.
What Is A Solar Storm?
In light of the recent solar storm that has affected Earth, the sun has been generating powerful solar flares since Wednesday, which have caused at least seven plasma explosions. The sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, can release billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field with each explosion known as a coronal mass ejection. According to NOAA, the flares appear to be connected to a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth. All of this is a result of the sun’s increasing activity as it gets closer to the end of its 11-year cycle.
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