Auroras Possible in Two States This Week After Sun Erupts ‘Dark Plasma’

A geomagnetic storm could produce auroras over northern Michigan and Maine after a strange explosion on the sun’s surface.

On July 21, a magnetic filament connected to sunspot AR3757 erupted, blasting two plumes of dark solar plasma into space.

The plasma could then form a coronal mass ejection that could collide with Earth within a few days, triggering a G1 geomagnetic storm.

Solar magnetic filaments are elongated structures of dense, cold gas suspended above the Sun’s surface by magnetic forces. When viewed in certain wavelengths of light, these filaments appear as dark lines or threads against the bright solar surface.

They form in areas with strong and complex magnetic fields, often around sunspots or active regions, and when they become unstable and release large amounts of energy, they can be the site of solar eruptions such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

The plasma released on July 21 appears dark because it is cooler and denser than the Sun below. This plasma plume then formed the center of a coronal mass ejection that is predicted to strike Earth on July 24.

“Unfortunately, these solar storms are often delayed, and given that this one had a lot of ‘traffic jams’ on its way to Earth, it wasn’t surprising to see it not arrive until late on July 24th. The ‘traffic jams’ mean that there’s a lot of slow solar wind ahead of this CME, and it has to go through all of that on its journey, which tends to make the storm move a little slower than models predict,” said space weather physicist Tamisa Skov. Newsweek.

“Recently, the STIX solar probe observed an X1 class flare on the far side of the Sun. Some have argued that the coronagraph observations of a ‘full halo’ (a ring around the Sun) are actually due to an eruption on the far side. So, things are a little ambiguous, but the people I’ve spoken to agree. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)“The Lunar and Mars forecast offices agreed that the STIX observations were not consistent with the majority of the features,” she said.

This is expected to produce a G1 class geomagnetic storm, the weakest on the NOAA space weather scale, which runs from G1 to G5, with G1 being the weakest and G5 being the most severe.

Geomagnetic storms are disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by the solar wind and solar activity (such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares). G1 storms occur relatively frequently, often multiple times a year, but G5 storms are extremely rare. The G5 storm that occurred on May 10 this year was the first “extreme” geomagnetic storm since 2003.

“A geomagnetic storm is a change in the Earth’s magnetic environment, which means the magnetic field that normally surrounds the Earth starts to become distorted,” says Daniel Brown, associate professor of astronomy and science communication at Nottingham Trent University. Previously said Newsweek.

“The amount of material being ejected, its speed, the associated magnetic fields, and interactions with other particles already ejected from the Sun all create a rugged environment moving outward from the Sun, through which Earth’s magnetic field passes,” Brown said. “The longer the interaction continues, the stronger it becomes, and the greater the chance of a powerful geomagnetic storm.”

A G1 storm could cause weak fluctuations on the power grid, minor impacts to satellite operations and could even make the aurora borealis visible from northern Michigan and Maine.

“Stronger storms impart more energy to electrons in Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere,” Brown said. “These electrons collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere and light up, providing the source of the polar lights. The more energetic the electrons are, the brighter the light.”

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