2023-04-25 06:51:43
One of the most amazing natural phenomena that exist is certainly the aurora borealis, mainly because it is not common all over the world, they are special events that depend on N variables and not everyone is lucky enough to see them.
Like other natural phenomena, the aurora borealis show variations in color and intensity, but following all, how can this phenomenon be explained?
One of the reasons is recent: a geomagnetic explosion caused one of the strongest solar storms of the last 20 years, which gave rise to the aurora borealis in several places on the night of Sunday to Monday last (23).
This magnificent phenomenon has decorated the sky in many regions of the northern hemisphere and even in places where this rarely happens, as was the case in central Europe and the southern United States, where certain states were gazed upon by the rare color of the sky. In the southern hemisphere, auroras have been observed in Antarctica and New Zealand, which is more common.
#Nature
Exceptional Northern Lights in #WizardsLatvia.Due to a strong geomagnetic storm, in the last few hours it has been possible to see the Northern Lights at low altitude, a very rare event. pic.twitter.com/Pr8apSMDjX
— Meteored | Tempo.com (@MeteoredBR) April 24, 2023
Although auroras were observed overnight from Sunday to Monday, the moderate-level solar storm M1.7 exploded in the followingnoon around 8:12 p.m. (French time), resulting in rejection by the Sun a billion tons of superheated magnetized gas, what scientists call plasma.
Solar Blast
Before observing the aurora borealis, an outburst from the sun was observed on April 21 and the Earth was in the impact zone. This explosion caused a strong coronal mass ejection (CME) which collided with the Earth’s magnetic field, creating a geomagnetic storm. In fact the storm was so strong that it has reached level 4 out of 5 on the space weather scale G of the NOAA.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Space Weather Prediction Center (SPWC), this geomagnetic storm, which was already being monitored, came earlier and was more intense than expected. It is because of this greater strength that it has been possible to observe the phenomenon in different parts of the two hemispheres.
The explosion was loud on Friday the 21st and, shortly following the episode, the US Air Force released a report of strong gusts of sunlight type II and type IV, considered natural shortwave emissions produced by shock waves that arrive before the CME as it passes through the sun’s atmosphere. It should be noted that the drift rates in a Type II gust reach a speed of regarding 580 km/s (1.3 million mph).
According to amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, who recorded an aurora borealis in New Mexico, “few bursts of sunlight appear warm purple on my spectrograph, but this one rang a bell.”
The places that have observed these colors in the sky are: Canada, northern and northeastern states of the United States such as Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, where the auroras are strongest. On the other hand, places where this phenomenon rarely occurs also saw the lights with less intensity, such as California, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas and North Carolina.
The storm calms down
This geomagnetic storm, which has generated aurora borealis even in the rarest places, is already losing intensity, but can still be spotted by minor (G1) or moderate (G2) storms until April 25, date on which the Earth will actually leave the trajectory of the CME.
Some experts took advantage of this episode of strong solar storm to remind us of the powerful impact of space weather on our daily lives here on Earth, because besides the magnificent northern lights, negative results can also be registered in the form of interruptions of technological tools and even disruptions of infrastructure. It should be recalled that in 1989, a strong solar storm caused a blackout in Canada, specifically in the province of Quebec.
This last solar explosion was considered as the strongest in the last six years. Since the most intense geomagnetic storms occur approximately 100 times per eleven-year solar cycle, experts estimate that the peak intensity and occurrence of solar flares in the current cycle should occur between 2024 and 2025, which means that despite the recent episode, even more violent storms might be recorded in the years to come.
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#solar #storm #unprecedented #aurora #borealis
