Two solar storms, or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are partly directed at Earth and will reach the -planet on Friday.
According to EarthSky.org, sunspot AR3354 left with a final hurrah: an M1.0 flare. The blast occurred late on July 5, 2023, at 18:58 UTC while this active region was partially out of view.
Readers may remember that AR3354 is an enormous sun spot that emerged on the solar surface on June 27. Just 48 hours later, it had grown to cover around 1.35 billion square miles (3.5 billion square kilometers), or 10 times wider than Earth.
The first coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with a flare from AR3359 occurred around 4 UTC on July 4 and is traveling at a slower speed and should arrive on Earth before 8 a.m. EDT on July 7, heading toward the Northeast. NOAA has issued a G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm alert.
The second storm will catch up to the first giving us a 1,2-punch. This second CME is moving faster and is expected to have a much more direct impact on Earth. It will be veering southward.;
Space Weather physicist Tamitha Skov shared footage of both CMEs recorded by the SOHO’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) on her Twitter feed. Skov wrote: “Our #Sun celebrates # July 4 with its own special fireworks! We have two partly Earth-directed #solarstorms (aka CMEs) on their way.
She added that the CMEs have the possibility of triggering a G-1 level geomagnetic storm, defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as minor events that can, nonetheless, give rise to power grid fluctuations and impact spacecraft
The CMEs could also result in another spectacular light show, this time high in the atmosphere over Earth. When charged particles travel down the magnetic field lines in Earth’s magnetosphere, they create bright, colorful displays called auroras. These are usually only visible at high latitudes on Earth near the poles, but these powerful CMEs could give rise to auroras that are visible at lower mid-latitudes.
Current geomagnetic activity: Earth’s magnetic field is quiet at the time of this writing (11 UTC on July 6), and it is anticipated to continue at quiet levels for the rest of the day. A G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm is expected for July 7 with the arrival of a coronal mass ejection (CME) that left the sun on July 4.
