Coronal mass ejection from colossal New Year's Eve solar flare to strike Earth today

January 3, 2024 13:02

Earth will be struck today by a coronal mass ejection from a huge solar flare that erupted from the sun on New Year's Eve, Report informs referring to Space.com.

The New Year's Eve flare created a CME, a huge bubble of plasma from a region of the sun called the corona, which is equivalent to the sun's outer atmosphere, and this has an Earth-directed component. Though this massive ejection of plasma will only graze the magnetic bubble surrounding our planet Tuesday (January 2), the magnetosphere, it could trigger a geomagnetic storm that could affect communications and power infrastructure.

The coronal mass ejection CME was hurled into space by an X-class solar flare that burst from the surface of the sun at 4:55 p.m. EST (2155 GMT) on Sunday (December 31). It is the most powerful flare that has happened on the sun during the current solar cycle, solar cycle 25, which began in December 2019. In fact, the flare that ended 2023 with a bang is the largest that has been observed since September 10, 2017, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This Earth-directed CME component has the potential to trigger a minor or "G1" geomagnetic storm. Storms like this have the capability to cause weak fluctuations in power grids and could have minor impacts on satellite operations. In addition to this, G1 geomagnetic storms can give rise to striking auroras, beautiful light shows seen over Earth, usually at higher latitudes.