Geomagnetic Storm Alert: A huge coronal hole 60 times larger than Earth appears on the Sun, and strong solar winds are expected.
This episode highlights the fact that the peak of our star’s activity is now imminent.
On December 2 a Huge coronal hole Its diameter is 800,000 km (60 times larger than Earth) appeared in the sun’s atmosphere. Since then it has been pointed directly at Earth, where it is hurtling towards it Particularly strong solar winds.
This structure appears when a line breaks in the solar magnetic field. Instead of heading back towards the star, this field line ends up pointing out into space. The charged particles of solar plasma follow this magnetic highway and thus find themselves propelled at speeds much higher than that of the conventional solar wind.
The impending peak of solar activity
If experts predict that this event will lead to a Geomagnetic storm With moderate to strong intensity, the sun was more lenient this time. according to Noah (US Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency). Spaceweather.comthe intensity of the particle flux corresponds to a geomagnetic storm of category G1 to G2, which are the least violent categories.
However, this episode bears witness to that The peak of our star’s activity is now imminent. In recent weeks, some phenomena have appeared, such as when ““sunspot archipelago” Appearing on the surface of the star, it turns out that we are not very far from the solar maximum.
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