Fears of solar storms grow as CME heads to Solar Orbiter; Power outages hit America after solar flare
Solar activity has been increasing since the beginning of the month. We have seen several solar flares and some solar storms so far, but fortunately they were not major events and their impact was very limited. However, over the past 24 hours, things have begun to change. An M2.12 solar flare erupted on the Sun, which in turn caused shortwave radio blackouts in the Americas. But this was not the worst incident of the day, as a powerful cloud of coronal mass ejection (CME) was detected heading toward the Solar Orbiter, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) sun-monitoring probe. It will hit today, September 9th. These events have raised fears that a severe solar storm hitting Earth is not very far away.
CME strike on Solar Orbiter
According to a report by SpaceWeather.com, “A halo from the far side of the coronal ejection is heading straight toward the spacecraft. According to NASA’s model, the coronal ejection will strike on September 9, giving Solar Orbiter’s sensors an in-situ view of the storm. The source of the explosion is the active sunspot AR3414, which is now crossing the far side of the Sun.
Fortunately, the solar orbiter is not in Earth’s line of sight, so this coronal ejection is unlikely to come close to our planet. Furthermore, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft is also not expected to sustain any damage since the spacecraft was built with such incidents in mind, and there are multiple layers of protective sheets on the lander to protect it – to some extent.
A solar flare causes radio outages
On September 8, an M2.12 solar flare erupted on the Sun, marking the strongest activity in the past 72 hours, according to SpaceWeatherLive, which to publish About it on its official account But it was not the end of the consequences of this solar explosion.
Solar storm warning
Finally, Tamitha Skov, the famous space weather physicist, to publish On X reveals that a solar storm will likely hit Earth tomorrow or the next day. She said: “We may have another #solarstorm on the way! Area 3425 fires an M2 flare and partially fires a filament at the edge of the ground strike zone. Waiting for the coronagraphs now to see if this #solarstorm may graze the Earth. If so, the impact could be Late September 10 or early September 11.
(Tags for translation)Solar storm
