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Last week, the Earth suffered multiple hits by the Sun, including two separate solar storms and a couple of radio blackouts. This was one of the most active weeks for solar activity after April, and researchers believe that the Sun is picking up the intensity again, as we approach the autumnal equinox (historically, the highest solar activity period, along with the vernal equinox) in September. As a sign of that, another solar storm has been predicted to strike the Earth on July 27, two days from now, on the back of a halo coronal mass ejection (CME).
A SpaceWeather.com report said, “Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible during the early hours of July 27th when a faint halo CME is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. The storm cloud was hurled toward us on July 23rd by a complex eruption involving a C5-class solar flare in sunspot AR3376 and the liftoff of a relatively nearby magnetic filament”.
Solar activity ramps up
According to information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the peak of the current solar cycle, the Solar Maximum, is expected to arrive in July 2025, in two years’ time. This means that solar activity is going to keep intensifying till then and we are likely to see both a higher frequency and intensity of solar storms.
While the geomagnetic storm predicted to hit the Earth on July 27 is expected to be a minor one, it can still cause some damage. Such solar storms may not be strong enough to affect mobile networks or damage satellites, but they can still cause radio blackouts and disrupt GPS signals. So, aviators, mariners, and ham radio operators can suffer some challenges during the period of the storm.
But this may just be the beginning. In the weeks and months to come, we are likely to see terrifying solar storms, including potentially Carrington-level events. We do not know for certain if that will happen, and there is no way to predict it. So, for now, researchers can only reinforce modern technology to make it resistant to such high bursts of static electricity and electromagnetic charge.
NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite’s role in solar storm monitoring
NOAA monitors solar storms and Sun’s behavior using its DSCOVR satellite which became operational in 2016. The recovered data is then run through the Space Weather Prediction Center and the final analysis is prepared. The different measurements are done on temperature, speed, density, degree of orientation, and frequency of the solar particles.
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