A powerful solar flare has been traveling through space and it will arrive on Earth, today.
In the early hours of Saturday morning (Jan. 30), a coronal mass ejection, a powerful explosion near the sun’s surface, erupted into space. This is an M1-class solar flare. M-class solar flare is a medium-sized space weather event that can cause temporary radio blackouts on Earth. There was a radio blackout recently, on 21 January over the Indian Ocean.
This explosion is a type of CME(Coronal Mass Ejection) known as a “halo CME”. Solar particles from this halo CME will hit Earth starting Wednesday, as anticipated in a forecast model from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sources reported.
The possibility is there, with the CME’s arrival at Earth, we could experience a G2-class geomagnetic storm. This is a moderate class, “low hazard” geomagnetic storm though.
The Center of Excellence in Space Sciences (CESSI) said that the estimated time of arrival of the CME from the Sun is from February 2 late evening to February 3 morning.CESSI is under the Kolkata-based Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.
This massive solar flare originated from the sunspot region called “AR2936”. AR2936 has emerged as one of the biggest active regions on the surface of the Sun in the new solar cycle. Accordingly, this sunspot is so big that Earth can fit into it, as per sources.
