NASA and NOAA forecast CME impact on December 9, geomagnetic storm warning issued
A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), a powerful burst of solar material, is en route to Earth and expected to arrive on December 9, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. This space weather event follows a strong solar flare produced on December 6. The flare came from sunspot 4299 and was an M8-class event, nearly the top rating, just shy of X-class.
Its immediate effects were felt across the Pacific, where the atmospheric disturbance caused a shortwave radio blackout. Radio users, including ships and amateur operators, saw signals drop for about 15 to 20 minutes on all frequencies below 20 MHz, per Space Weather.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been utilizing sophisticated models to monitor the enormous cloud of plasma and magnetic fields, which is en route to Earth. Their forecasts agree: the CME should reach Earth early to midday on December 9. Experts from the Space Weather Prediction Center warned that the impact might generate a G3-Strong geomagnetic storm. While such high-level alerts are not an everyday occurrence, neither are they rare.
There might be minor, limited disruptions to some technological systems; these are generally manageable and correctable. To the general public, the most striking effect will be an intensification of the dramatic Northern Lights. The auroras could light up parts of the northern U.S. states, even reaching into portions of the Midwest and Oregon. People should check NOAA's website for any latest information and updates on the progress of the storm.
An expansive display of the Northern and Southern Lights (aurora borealis and aurora australis) is a direct result of the interactions between charged particles of the Sun and Earth's magnetic field. Due to their different chemical compositions, they usually come in different colors
The Sun continuously blows charged particles into space, the so-called solar wind. Whenever this wind reaches Earth’s magnetic shield, energy is deposited. As this energy gathers and finally is released, the charged particles rain down into our atmosphere, creating the auroras. The green glow of the auroras is produced by oxygen at altitudes of around 60 to 120 miles; red auroral displays are produced by oxygen at higher altitudes, above 120 miles.
This incoming space weather event began in the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, a region sculpted by strong magnetic fields. NASA notes that these can become unstable if certain conditions are met, especially above active sunspot regions, and violently release enormous bubbles of gas and magnetic fields. That is a Coronal Mass Ejection. A large CME is a great force; it can hurl up to a billion tons of matter into space that can be accelerated to millions of miles per hour in a colossal blast. Once launched, this solar material might travel through space to strike any planet or spacecraft in its path.
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