A massive solar flare will hit Earth later this week after a powerful outburst on the sun on Tuesday evening, October 3.
This is not the first time in 2024 that we will experience solar flares. In May, a solar storm hit after a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) resulted from the merger of two large sunspots. That event lit up the sky with the Northern Lights.
Now we are preparing for the impact of another solar storm. NASA reports that Sunspot AR3842, a fast-growing region of intense magnetic fields, has unleashed the second-strongest eruption seen in the past five years.
Solar flares are categorized by intensity, with the strongest referred to as the X class. These flares can cause significant disruptions, including radio blackouts, damage to satellites and even disruptions to the electrical grid. Tuesday’s flare was rated X7.1, only slightly less intense than May’s X8.9 flare.
The eruption has already caused a brief radio outage over Hawaii and launched a CME into space. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that this CME will collide with Earth’s magnetic field on Saturday, October 5.
When CMEs hit Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms, which not only produce stunning auroras like the Northern Lights, but can also disrupt satellite communications and potentially cause disruptions to the power grid.
This latest event reminds us that the Sun is currently in its ‘solar maximum’ phase, the most active part of its 11-year cycle. Scientists originally predicted this peak of solar activity would occur in July 2025, but solar flares have increased at an accelerated pace, causing experts to reconsider their timeline.
We’ll experience 41 X-class solar flares in 2024 alone – more than the total number we’ve seen in the past nine years combined, according to spaceweather.com.
We normally only see about 10 X-class flares per year. With solar maximum expected to last at least another year, we are likely to see more intense solar activity, bringing the risk of additional geomagnetic storms and associated disruptions.
So brace yourself for what could be a wild ride in the coming days as space weather shows its might once again.
