As we enter the third day of solar flares, the flares on the Sun show no signs of abating. Yesterday, NASA detected several coronal mass ejection (CME) clouds moving in different directions, although none of them came towards Earth. But it didn’t last long. A few hours earlier today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected a large CME cloud sweep past its DSCOVR satellite. This CME was previously undetected and came as a complete shock. Know how dangerous it is.
A step Report Via Spaceweather , “An unexpected CME passed across NOAA’s DSCOVR spacecraft that will soon hit Earth’s magnetic field. The impact can trigger G1 to G2-class geomagnetic storms with high-latitude auroras. The report also states that this event is separate from the previous weekend’s solar storm, which is expected to occur between May 7-8.
An unexpected solar storm will hit Earth
This week is affected by solar problems. Earlier in the week, Earth experienced a shortwave radio blackout due to a massive solar flare explosion. Later, a sunspot complex became unstable and started firing solar flares, resulting in a series of blackouts that heavily affected the African continent. On the third day of high solar activity, a geomagnetic storm hits Earth. And tomorrow another storm will hit the earth.
Things can get worse if the sunspot complex continues to erupt in solar flares and release CME clouds. Any of those could turn into a cannibalistic CME, gobbling up nearby clouds to deliver an intense solar storm to Earth. Such solar storms can damage satellites, disrupt mobile networks, internet services and GPS signals, cause power grid outages and damage sensitive electronics on Earth.
The role of NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite in solar storm monitoring
NOAA monitors solar storms and the Sun’s behavior using its DSCOVR satellite, which began operations in 2016. The recovered data is then processed through the Space Weather Forecast Center and final analysis is prepared. Different measurements are made on temperature, speed, density, degree of orientation and frequency of solar particles.