Radio Disruption Occurs In The US Due To Strong Sun Particle Flow
JAKARTA - Radio outages were reported to have occurred in parts of the United States after the sun released a strong energy particle out to Earth on Wednesday morning, May 29.
The National Administrative and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported disturbances in the country'sagnetic and eastern regions at around 10:36 p.m. ET. NOAA also reported that these disturbances could affect radar, GPS, and satellite communications.
Media reported on Tuesday May 28 that NOAA had predicted a 60 percent chance of a radio outage, which is expected to last until the weekend.
The point of the sun that releases this stream is the same region that caused the superstorm earlier this month. The event is predicted to be one of the worst in history, forcing NOAA to issue a warning - the first since 2005.
The incident disrupted GPS, electricity grids, agricultural equipment, and satellites in orbit. This point, which is much cooler than the solar surface around it, has moved away from Earth for the past two weeks - but reappeared in the view of our planet this week.
NOAA held a briefing earlier this month when the world was under a severe geomagnetic storm, which was a major disruption to Earth's magnetosphere, and acknowledged that the sunspot was likely to return for another round.
Over the past 24 hours, solar activity has been considered a'moderate', releasing at least 21 flares with two strong flares launched in the early hours of Wednesday.
NOAA's dashboard at the time showed a possible 60 percent radio outage for Wednesday to at least Friday, with a possible 10 percent solar radiation storm.
Solar radiation storms occur when a large number of charged particles, protons and electrons, are accelerated by processes in or near the sun. When this process occurs, the satellite environment near Earth is flooded with high energy particles.
These particles can interact with the magnetic field and the atmosphere of our planet, cause disruption to satellite communications, as well as radiation hazards to astronauts in space and disturbances to the power grid.
Also predicted this week is an amazing aurora, which is likely to be visible in the northern hemisphere.
The Sun currently has eight active sunspots on the side facing Earth. NOAA reports that two regions, 3691 and 3697, could release flares higher than usual this week.
SEE ALSO:
Strong particles emanating from the sun are caused by intense solar activity, such as solar flares and the ejection of the corona mass ejections, CMEs. The following is an explanation of the two main phenomena:
Solar Explosion (Solar Flares):
Lontaran Massa Korona (Coronal Mass Ethics, CME):
These two phenomena are part of a solar activity cycle, which has a period of about 11 years. At the peak of this cycle, known as the maximum of the sun, activity such as solar explosions and CMEs become more frequent. As a result, the flux of highly charged particles bound for Earth also increases, leading to an increased risk of geomagnetic perturbations.