Washington (IANS) | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Earth witnessed the most powerful solar storm in nearly six years, spreading aurora across the Americas.
NOAA previously declared moderate G2 hurricane and G3 conditions between March 23 and 25.
However, Earth observed a geomagnetic storm of magnitude G4, causing NOAA to update its warnings.
“The response to the geomagnetic storm increased and the G4 level first reached Earth on March 24 at 12.04 EDT.”
“The CME effect continues and the geomagnetic response has increased to G4 (severe) hurricane level on March 24 at 12:04 a.m. EDT (24/0404 UTC).
G3 Warning in effect until 5:00 AM EDT (24/0900 UTC).
When a powerful geomagnetic storm causes severe disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field, a coronal mass ejection (CME) spews solar material from the Sun’s upper atmosphere or large ejection of charged plasma from the corona, according to NOAA.
The solar storm was the result of a ‘stealth’ CME. Live Science reported that it came from a coronal hole more than 20 Earths wide, spewing solar winds at more than 2.1 million km/h and the storm was the most intense in six years.
The storm’s unexpected ferocity not only made auroras visible as far south as New Mexico in the US, reports Space.com, but it also forced spaceflight company Rocket Lab to delay the launch by 90 minutes.
According to the report, we can expect more extreme space weather events like this powerful geomagnetic storm as the sun moves towards a peak in its 11-year solar activity cycle, which is expected to occur in 2025.
–IANS
