This Christmas Day, the skies may add to the festive cheer with a display of the aurora borealis, thanks to a blob of charged particles on track to deliver a ‘glancing blow’ to our planet following a powerful M8.9 solar flare.
High-latitude regions of the United States, including northern Montana, Minnesota and North Dakota, may see auroral displays late Wednesday (December 25), according to Watch the geomagnetic storm Issued by the Space Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Earth-bound M8.9 solar flare, which was emitted by the Sun yesterday (December 23) from a large sunspot region called AR3932, also unleashed a vast pocket of highly energetic, magnetic particles known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). This coronal ejection is only partially directed toward Earth, so NOAA expects minor G1 storm conditions that are unlikely to cause major disruptions to power grids or other critical infrastructure.
However, it is enough to cause aurora borealis in several states in the northern United States. When such storms reach Earth, most of the charged particles are deflected by our planet’s magnetic field, but a small fraction of them migrate to the poles and enter the atmosphere. There, these particles collide with gases and create stunning displays like the aurora borealis this summer It dazzled observers around the world.
Active sun
Shortly after its eruption from the Sun, M8.9’s final flare caused a temporary disturbance in radio signals over Africa and the South Atlantic that lasted about 15 minutes. Noa said. Three more M-class flares exploded into space today (December 24) from the same sunspot region causing similar minor radio outages over Fiji and Madagascar.
The flare comes during a period of increased turbulence on the Sun, which occurred recently I reached climax From a normal activity cycle of 11 years. Scientists have noticed more than a dozen sunspot regions puncturing the surface of the sun right now, a harbinger of increased solar activity as the new year approaches.
The latest storm also coincided with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe The closest approach ever to setting records To the sun. Scientists hope that a solar flare will accidentally hit the spacecraft as it approaches it, which will provide solar scientists with close-up data that can help explain how the Sun’s charged particles accelerate to near-light speeds. But NASA won’t know how well the spacecraft performed during the storm until after it returns to work in the new year.
