Earth has yet to fully grapple with last week’s ‘severe’ solar storms – but scientists are already warning of another ‘perfect storm’ of rare space weather.
The Sun has been releasing powerful bursts, emissions of electromagnetic radiation, containing large amounts of charged particles that have accelerated in speed and increased in number due to the intense magnetic activity on the star’s surface.
And now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is showing a 60 percent chance of a solar radiation storm starting tomorrow, with a lower chance on Wednesday as well.
The particles can interact with our planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere, causing… disruptions to satellite communications, as well as radiation hazards for astronauts in space and interference with power grids.
The solar magnetic storm responsible for these events is still producing the most intense class of solar flares, X-class solar flares, space weather experts said today.
Although the next few days of these solar storms are predicted to miss our planet, the radiation storms are expected to launch their highly charged particles into a curved magnetic field, the Parker spiral, that curls out from the sun into our solar system.
As the sun rotates, the magnetic fields emanating from it bend as they flow past the planets in its orbit, creating a spiral structure known as the Parker spiral.
Charged particles from a solar flare can get caught in these spirals and shoot them back toward Earth — when they would otherwise have missed our planet.
The solar magnetic storm responsible for these events is still producing the most intense class of solar flares, X-class solar flares, NOAA forecasters said Monday.
The above subatomic particles, specifically protons, emitted by the Sun crossed the ‘warning threshold’ on Monday afternoon, promising a potential ‘radiation storm’ later in the week
This week’s upcoming solar radiation storm is different from the “geomagnetic storms” that hit Earth this weekend, which were a direct hit powerful enough to disrupt Earth’s protective magnetic field, the magnetosphere.
Much of the coming radiation storm will be absorbed by Earth’s magnetic field, but not near the exposed polar regions – where Earth’s magnetosphere bends back down and inward toward Earth’s core .
NOAAs Center for Space Weather Forecasting also noted that last weekend’s geomagnetic storms would continue until 5:00 PM ET on Monday, with the possibility of further, but weaker, “power grid fluctuations” and impacts on “satellite operations.”
The storm’s ability to push the famed “northern lights” further south would also continue, with aurora likely still visible along the “northern tier of the US, such as northern Michigan and Maine,” according to the space weather experts from the agency.
As the week progresses, Sunspot AR3664, the giant “sunspot” responsible for last weekend’s solar storms, is expected to pass through part of the Parker Spiral, bending its high-speed radiation into a path that intersects Earth’s orbit.
Sunspot AR3664, a dark spot on the solar surface with a magnetic field about 2,500 times stronger than Earth’s, is one of the largest sunspots observed in decades.
NOAA’s space weather observing satellite GOES-18 has already detected a wave of subatomic particles, specifically protons, being ejected by the sun into Earth’s upper atmosphere. Above, a new solar flare with x-class intensity, the highest intensity detected on Monday
NOAA’s GOES-18’s ‘proton radiation’ measurements exceeded the ‘warning threshold’ on Monday afternoon, ahead of the predicted ‘radiation storm’ later this week
The dense magnetic event is as long as 15 Earths and could produce solar storms similar to the 1859 Carrington event, which set telegraph stations and wires on fire, disrupted communications worldwide and disrupted ships’ compasses.
Because Earth is now largely out of reach of any direct impacts from geomagnetic storms on this swirling sunspot, this week’s radiation storms will arise from a unique feature of the sun’s rotation itself.
“As the Sun rotates, the Sun’s magnetic field expands outward in a spiral pattern called the Parker spiral,” NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory team.
When ejections from a sunspot like AR3664 hit the right part of the spiral, it causes, in the team’s words, “the charged particles of the solar wind to spray into the solar system like a garden sprinkler.”
NOAA’s space weather observing satellite GOES-18 has already detected a wave of subatomic particles, specifically protons, being ejected by the sun into Earth’s upper atmosphere.
GOES-18’s ‘proton radiation’ measurements exceeded the ‘warning threshold’ on Monday afternoon, ahead of the predicted ‘radiation storm’ later this week.
The NOAA team warned that radio communications at Earth’s poles today could experience “fades” on certain frequencies.
The Sun’s magnetic field, which high-energy particles follow, is curved due to the Sun’s rotation, a phenomenon known as the Parker spiral, pictured
Although Earth is now largely out of reach of further direct hits from the geomagnetic storms or solar flares on this swirling sunspot, this week’s radiation storms will arise from a unique feature of the sun’s own rotation.
“As the sun rotates, the sun’s magnetic field expands outward in a spiral pattern called the Parker spiral,” NASA said. When ejections from a sunspot hit the spiral, it causes “the charged particles of the solar wind to spray into the solar system like a garden sprinkler.”
Last Friday, farmers in Minnesota, Nebraska and other parts of the American Midwest experienced satellite disruptions to the global positioning system (GPS) equipment they depend on to operate their equipment.
“All the tractors are at the ends of the field and are currently shut down due to the solar storm,” farmer Kevin Kenney said. 404 Media this weekend. ‘No GPS.’
“We’re in the middle of planting corn,” Kenney added.
Many farms are now using GPS to plant crops more efficiently and accurately in straight rows, reducing errors such as overlapping seedbeds or gaps in unused soil.
“I’ve never had to deal with anything like this,” said Patrick O’Connor, who owns a farm about a 90-minute drive south of Minneapolis, told the New York Times.
O’Connor’s had hoped to plant its corn and soybean crops late Friday night after rainy conditions kept its operations in a holding pattern for two weeks — only to be thwarted by the solar storm.
The problem was so widespread this weekend that John Deere farm equipment manufacturer Landmark Implement sent out a text message alert in the Midwest, advising customers to turn off their equipment during the storm.
While the company reported that its agricultural GPS systems were “extremely compromised” as a result of the storm, they also believed the event was rare.
“We are looking for (a) tool to help predict this in the future so that we can attempt to warn our customers that this issue could occur,” the company said in a statement.
“We truly believe this is a historic event and it is not something we will have to continue to fight against very often.”