By Balasubramanyam Seshan: Subscribe to Balasubramanyam's RSS feed
August 16, 2010 8:49 AM EDT
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s solar dynamics observatory detected on Saturday a small eruption on the sun with another coronal mass ejection that was partially directed towards the Earth.
A minor solar radiation storm was detected on August 14 at about 6 am EDT after the eruption, confirms the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) space weather prediction center. There may be some level of geomagnetic storming on or around August 17 and 18, it said.
Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere, heating plasma to tens of millions of kelvins and accelerating electrons, protons, and heavier ions to near the speed of light. Flares produce radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths, from radio waves to gamma rays.
NOAA said the solar radiation storm impacts are expected to be minor to high frequency radio communications in polar regions. However, this is the first solar radiation storm of Solar Cycle 24 and the first since December 2006.
The solar radiation storm has subsided below threshold levels, according to NOAA which said subsequent significant activity is not expected.
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Initial observations of the coronal mass ejection (CME) direction and velocity do not indicate a high likelihood of significant geomagnetic storming but the center will continue to monitor this event as it unfolds, NOAA said in a statement.
A CME is a massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space. Recent scientific research has shown that the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection is responsible for CME and solar flares.
When the ejection reaches the Earth as an interplanetary CME, it may disrupt the Earth's magnetosphere, compressing it on the day side and extending the night-side magnetic tail. When the magnetosphere reconnects on the night-side, it releases power on the order of terrawatt scale, which is directed back toward the Earth's upper atmosphere.
This process can cause particularly strong aurora in large regions around the Earth's magnetic poles. These are also known as the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) in the northern hemisphere, and the Southern Lights (aurora australis) in the southern hemisphere.
NOAA space weather prediction center issued a 3-day solar-geophysical forecast on August 15 at 10:00 pm UTC, when solar activity is expected to be very low with a chance for C-class flares.
Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at unsettled-to-active levels for the next three days. The increase in activity is in response to a coronal hole high-speed stream on Monday, the space weather prediction center said.
The center said activity on August 17 and 18 will be in response to the CME observed on Saturday.
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