Washington: NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has detected two Solar Storms, also called as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), that are partly directed at Earth.
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can contain as much as a billion tons of Plasma made up of charged particles and thus carry with them their own magnetic fields.
NASA has projected that the massive ejection of ionized gas called Plasma will impact Earth by Friday July 7, 2023, sparking intense auroras display.
When the charged particles within CMEs strike the magnetic field of our planet, the magnetosphere, they can give rise to large disturbances called geomagnetic storms.
These storms, also called as solar flares, can, in turn, disrupt power and communication infrastructure on the surface of Earth in addition to affecting satellites, which could adversely influence services such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), according to Space.com.
If the arriving solar magnetic field is directed southward it interacts strongly with the oppositely oriented magnetic field of the Earth. The Earth's magnetic field is then peeled open like an onion allowing energetic solar wind particles to stream down the field lines to hit the atmosphere over the poles.
Space Weather Physicist Tamitha Skov shared footage of both CMEs recorded by the SOHO's Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) on Twitter:
Our #Sun celebrates #July4 with its own special fireworks! We have two partly Earth-directed #solarstorms (aka CMEs) on their way. The second storm will catch up to the first giving us a 1,2-punch. Model predictions show impact likely July 7. I'll post NASA model runs next. pic.twitter.com/gtJwgcYS4Z— Dr. Tamitha Skov (@TamithaSkov) July 5, 2023
Our #Sun celebrates #July4 with its own special fireworks! We have two partly Earth-directed #solarstorms (aka CMEs) on their way. The second storm will catch up to the first giving us a 1,2-punch. Model predictions show impact likely July 7. I'll post NASA model runs next. pic.twitter.com/gtJwgcYS4Z
The second CME is hurtling through space more rapidly and will result in what Skov described as more of a "direct hit" on Earth, with it veering slightly southward. It should arrive in the early hours of July 7.
CMEs are sometimes associated with solar flares but can occur independently. A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion, according to NASA.
The Earth witnessed a powerful solar storm in nearly six years, causing auroras all over the US, in March this year.
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