A long strand of solar material was suspended in the atmosphere, which erupted into space. The coronal mass ejection circulated to over 900 kilometers per second.
The mass did not travel directly toward Earth, yet made contact with the magnetic field, or magnetosphere, causing auroras that were to be seen on the night of September 3.
The image includes an image of the earth to show the size of the coronal mass compared to the size of the ‘blue planet’.
Solar flare will hit Earth this weekend
DALLAS, – A solar storm will arrive at Earth on Saturday causing geomagnetic conditions that could cause disruptions in satellite and radio signals, reported the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
A huge flare and eruption of solar plasma from the Sun reported, called coronal mass ejection, or CME, which is now going directly toward Earth at about five million miles per hour.
It is expected that the effects of radiation or solar flare to reach the Earth between 5:00 and 9:00 am Eastern Time U.S. (9:00 to 13:00 GMT) on Saturday, according to forecasts by the NASA researchers and the Climate Prediction Center NOAA‘s Space.
The solar flare on Thursday was officially classified as an X1.4 class flare, so it becomes the strongest in the summer so far.
The flare and CME emerged from a massive sunspot known as AR1520, which scientists say could be up to 300 thousand kilometers long.
The arrival of the radiation by the coronal mass ejection to Earth likely to generate moderate geomagnetic storms that will last until Sunday, with the potential to cause temporary interruptions in radio and satellite networks as well as energy.
The solar storm is affecting the Earth was intensified on Friday causing some interference to
WASHINGTON, March 9. – The solar storm is affecting the Earth and it intensified on Friday causing some interference in communications before forwarding, as experts warn of more to come.
The solar storm was intense, but remained low during geoefectividad on Thursday as the orientation of the planet’s magnetic field, said Eduardo Araujo, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
However, this Friday, “by reversing the vertical component of interplanetary magnetic field, the event geoefectividad increased significantly, and the magnetic storm reached severe levels (G3),” an escalation of five.
The increased intensity has caused “extensive blockages in high radio frequency” and an increase in the margin of error of positioning systems (GPS) and Northern Lights have been seen in Seattle (Washington) and Sheridan (Wyoming ), in America, but have not reported problems with power grids, he said.
The sun goes through regular cycles of activity and every 11 years or so there is a peak in activity in the storms that often occur at times distorted and even cross the Earth’s magnetic field.
Araujo said that we are currently in the upswing of the solar cycle and the maximum is expected to occur sometime in 2013, so that “the activity will continue to increase during this period.”
In fact, the U.S. space agency NASA, has recorded another coronal mass ejection is expected to hit Earth on March 11 and, according to the expert, “predicted a magnetic storm of similar intensity to which we are experiencing now “.
This is what you get on Sunday
The event is probably the strongest in nearly six years, said Joseph Kunches, a specialist in U.S. space weatherWASHINGTON, March 7. – A geomagnetic storm is moving from the Sun to the Earth, and its arrival is scheduled for Thursday which could affect power grids, roads and aircraft navigation systems, space satellite, U.S. experts said.The storm, a cloud of charged particles ejected from the Sun to about 7.2 million miles per hour, had its origin in a pair of solar flares, scientists said.
This is probably the strongest event in nearly six years, and is probably more intense than a similar storm occurred in late January, said Joseph Kunches, a space weather specialist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA .)
In the view of the solar disturbance Kunches this is a matter of three stages and the first two are already affecting the Earth:
Firstly, two solar flares that were traveling near the speed of light reached Earth on Tuesday night. These flares can cause radio blackouts.
Subsequently, solar radiation reach the Earth’s magnetic field on Wednesday, causing a potential impact on air traffic, especially near the poles, satellites and any astronaut who perform spacewalks. This phase can last several days.
Finally, it is expected that the plasma cloud sent by the coronal mass ejection, which is basically a large part of the Sun’s atmosphere, comes to Earth early Thursday.
This phase can affect power grids, satellites, pipelines and high-precision GPS systems, used by oil drillers, surveyors and some agricultural operations, scientists said.
Strike of Lightning! 