Geomagnetic storms may spark auroras in northern Michigan and Maine after a strange explosion on the surface of the sun.
On July 21, a magnetic filament connected to sunspot AR3757 erupted, sending two plumes of dark-colored solar plasma careening into space.
The plasma then formed a coronal mass ejection, which may collide with the Earth in the coming days, causing a G1 geomagnetic storm.
Magnetic filaments on the sun are elongated structures of dense, cooler gas suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces. When viewed in specific wavelengths of light, these filaments appear as dark lines or threads against the brighter solar disk.
They form in regions where the magnetic field is strong and complex, often around sunspots and active regions, and can be sites of solar eruptions, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), when they become unstable and release large amounts of energy.
The plasma released on July 21 appears dark due to it being cooler and more dense than the sun beneath it. This plume of plasma then formed the core of a coronal mass ejection that is forecast to hit the Earth on July 24.
"Sadly, these solar storms are often fashionably late, and with all the 'traffic' this one will endure on its way to Earth, I wouldn't be surprised if the storm doesn't arrive until late on July 24. By 'traffic' I mean a lot of slow solar wind is ahead of this CME and it has to push through all of this during its journey, which tends to slow the storm down a bit compared to the model predictions," space weather physicist Tamitha Skov told Newsweek.
"There was an X1-class flare on the sun's farside that Solar Orbiter observed with the STIX instrument around this time. Some are arguing that the coronagraph 'full-halo' observation (the ring around the sun) is actually due to the farside eruption. Thus, there is a little ambiguity, but the folks I have talked with at NASA's Moon to Mars forecasting office have agreed that the STIX observation is not consistent with the bulk of the signature," she said.
This is expected to spark a G1-class geomagnetic storm, which is the weakest form of geomagnetic storm on the NOAA Space Weather Scale. The scale ranges from G1 to G5, with G1 being the mildest and G5 being the most severe.
Geomagnetic storms are disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere caused by solar wind and solar activities, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares. G1 storms occur relatively frequently, often multiple times per year, while G5 storms are very rare: the G5 storm on May 10 this year was the first "extreme" geomagnetic storm since 2003.
"A geomagnetic storm is the alteration of the Earth's magnetic environment, this means when the magnetic fields that usually surround our Earth start to be distorted," Daniel Brown, an associate professor in astronomy and science communication at Nottingham Trent University, previously told Newsweek.
"The amount of matter ejected, its speed, the associated magnetic fields, as well as how they interact with other already emitted particles from the sun, all add up to a bumpy environment moving outwards from the sun for our Earth's magnetic field to travel through," Brown said. "The more prolonged, the stronger the interaction will be and the higher the likelihood of a strong geomagnetic storm."
G1 storms can cause weak power grid fluctuations, minor impacts on satellite operations, and may result in the northern lights being visible from northern Michigan and Maine.
"Stronger storms will impart more energy on the electrons in our Earth's magnetic environment or magnetosphere," Brown said. "These electrons are then going to be the source of the light seen in southern/northern lights as they crash into oxygen or nitrogen in our high atmosphere, making them glow. The more energetic the electrons are, the brighter the display."
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