Written by Stacey Liberatore Dailymail.com
00:09 04 January 2024, 03:29 04 January 2024 Updated
- Solar storm was scheduled to impact Earth on Tuesday, but could occur later
- Space weather physicist said solar wind is not as powerful as expected
- Read more: NASA detects the strongest burst of solar energy in six years
On Tuesday, as the world waited as billions of particles ejected by the sun on New Year’s Eve were set to impact Earth, experts said the solar storm was “jammed up”.
Dr. Tamisa Sukov told DailyMail.com that solar winds that precede solar storms, or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), There was not enough power to move forward at the expected speed.
“The radiation storm has increased to an official S1 level,” Skoff said, with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) indicating the possibility of radio frequency disturbances Wednesday and Thursday.
she also revealed It is said that some of Earth’s technology has detected part of the storm. Radio frequencies used for marine radio, possibly Starlink, and certain television broadcasts were disrupted for a “short period.”
CMEs can eject billions of tons of coronal material from the Sun’s surface.
For the energized particles to impact Earth, the edge of the storm trial behind the front must pass through Earth’s orbit.
“The solar wind flow ahead of the storm was slower than expected, which slowed down the storm,” Skov told DailyMail.com.
“It’s like when there is light traffic on a highway, a fast car that catches up is forced to slow down and travel at about the same speed as the slower lane in front of it.”
The SWPC warning said potential impacts include “minor effects on polar HF (high frequency) radio propagation resulting in fades at lower frequencies.”
“Minor impacts on polar HF mainly concern radiation storms that cause degradation of high-frequency radio and GPS navigation signals for people navigating and communicating in the polar regions,” Skov said.
‘Radiation storms affect polar regions most strongly due to the fact that the Earth’s magnetic shield is “open” to these radiation storm particles at the poles.
This month’s eruption was the strongest burst of solar energy since 2017, NASA said, and the phenomenon was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft that has been studying the sun since its launch in 2010.
The footage shows a bright region of the Sun, brightening before exploding and releasing the highest-level X5 flare from the edge of the massive star.
The SWPC revealed that the public had nothing to fear, but that the first radiation blast on December 31st was found to have caused a power outage over the Pacific Ocean.
The agency predicts that the Earth will be hit by a small geomagnetic storm on Tuesday, a temporary disturbance in the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by shock waves in the solar wind.
“The risk cited by NOAA/SWPC is certain levels of radio interference, which often, but not always, affect GPS reception,” Skov said.
He went on to say that the new year’s X5 caused radio bursts of up to 220MHz, jamming HF and some very high frequency (VHF) that power marine radios used by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and other ships. explained.
“I am talking about this in my latest forecast (which is why I am telling aviators to check the ICAO recommendations for the latest information on the impact on radio communications and GPS navigation)” he said.
Physicists also noted that the same burst caused degradation of television broadcast systems that use ultra-high frequency (UHF) radios for wireless transmission.
SpaceX’s Starlink signal may also have been disrupted for a “short period”.
“Radio waves (called ‘radio bursts’) affect the reception of satellite signals such as GPS and even HF radio communications,” Skov said.
“During a solar flare, it’s like the sun is literally screaming at us.
“This ‘scream’ is much louder than the satellite’s ‘cry’ and temporarily drowns out the satellite signal.
“That being said, the sun doesn’t always scream at the exact frequencies that affect GPS signals.”