A coronal hole near the south pole of the Sun was recently detected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. It is between 300,000 and 400,000 kilometers wide.which “equals 20 to 30 Earth-like planets aligned in a row”.
Although holes like this are part of the Sun’s normal activity, scott mcintoshsolar physicist and deputy director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Indian that scientists still do not fully understand them and have called these events “the ‘dark side’ of solar activity“.
The coronal foramina appear as dark areas of the solar corona (outer part of the Sun’s atmosphere), because being cold regions and less dense than the surrounding plasma, they do not shine as much as in other areas of the large star.
They are regions of open unipolar magnetic fields that allow solar wind to easily escape into space, resulting in fast-moving solar wind streams called “high-velocity currents”. The source of these fast solar windsreaches speeds between 500 and 800 kilometers per second, which can reach the Earth.
Solar coronal hole.
Stronger magnetic fields, such as those from a coronal mass ejection, could cause power outages or disrupt communication technologies. But coronal holes, even the biggest ones like this, are much less violent. Thus, the main expected effect is a more “vibrant” aurora borealiswhich can be observed at lower latitudes than usual, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
Severe solar storm triggered by rare conditions
So, last weekend, the geomagnetic storm triggered by the solar hole came to record Class G3. Later he switched to class G4, considered severe.
As The Post portal reports, the last time a level four geomagnetic storm occurred was in 2017.
bill murtaughprogram coordinator of the Space Weather Prediction Center of the NOAAsaid meteorologists did not expect a storm of this severity and that the conditions that caused it are very rare.
You might also be interested in: They capture a strange detachment on the Sun that baffles scientists.
The event prompted sightings of the aurora borealis at some locations in Scotland, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Norway and Greenland.
These were recorded by several Internet users on social networks:
The phenomenon could become concerning, as the strong magnetic fields of coronal mass ejections and solar flares are known to trigger high voltage alarms in electrical systems. In the same way, they generate interference with satellites.
References: El Confidential / NOOA.
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