The Earth could experience some minor geomagnetic storms later this week if a slow cloud of solar particles reaches Earth.
The prediction was made by spaceweather.com, a site that uses solar control data to produce space-time updates.
Geomagnetic storms are the result of changes in the Earth’s magnetic field due to interactions between it and the sun’s charged particles. If strong enough, these storms can interfere with communication networks and the power grid.
A photo of the sun on July 18, 2022, from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Sometimes the sun releases clouds of charged particles to Earth, causing geomagnetic storms. NASA / SDO / AIA
However, this is unlikely to be the case with the approaching potential storm, which is only expected to be a softer type G1 storm, according to the space-time prediction of the Space-time Prediction Center ( SWPC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The SWPC states that Class G1 storms can cause weak fluctuations in the power grid and have a smaller impact on satellite operations. In addition, auroras may be visible in the sky at lower-than-normal latitudes, such as in U.S. states such as northern Michigan and Maine.
The possible storm will be caused by a cloud of particles ejected from “an unstable filament of magnetism” in the sun on July 15, according to spaceweather.com, which indicated an expected arrival time between July 20 and 21.
In addition, solar physicist Tamitha Skov shared a NASA prediction model on Twitter that showed what she said would be a “direct impact” of a July 15 solar ejection, but with an earlier impact date. of July 19th. It is unclear if this is the same ejection. .
Hit straight! A snake-like filament was launched like a large #stormstorm while in the Earth’s impact zone. NASA predicts the impact in early July. You can see strong #aurora shows with this one, in the middle latitudes. Amateur #radio and #GPS users expect signal interruptions in the nocturnal part of the Earth. pic.twitter.com/7FHgS63xiU
– Dr. Tamitha Skov (@TamithaSkov) July 16, 2022
The solar ejection can also be seen in a video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory that day, which shows a very brief flash of material moving away from the surface of the sun in the mid-afternoon just at the beginning of this clip.
These particle clouds are known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and are frequent. However, only once every two weeks or so does one end up going to Earth.
CMEs can consist of billions of tons of material from the solar atmosphere and carry an embedded magnetic field. They are released from the sun when the twisted magnetic field lines are suddenly reconfigured.
The speed of CMEs can vary widely, with some being able to reach Earth in as little as 15 to 18 hours depending on the SWPC. However, the July 15 ejection travels especially slowly and is expected to come into contact with Earth five to six days after leaving the sun.
The SWPC had not issued any warnings or alerts until Monday. In any case, it is unlikely to cause any problems for the general public, even if it reaches Earth.
Newsweek has previously spoken with a space meteorology expert to find out what would happen if a very large geomagnetic storm occurred as a result of a massive solar flare or CME. These events could cause trillion-dollar damage to infrastructure, as well as a major disruption.