COMPUTED footage of a solar ‘tsunami wave’ headed towards Earth has been shared by NASA.
Researchers believe that a strong geomagnetic storm may strike Earth tomorrow.
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This could be the result of “a full-halo CME”, which is a type of solar flare – or an eruption of intense high-energy radiation from the sun’s surface.
“The storm cloud was hurled toward Earth yesterday by a solar tsunami eruption,” Space Weather noted.
NOAA forecasters predict that the solar cloud may culminate in a G1 or G2-class geomagnetic storm.
They added that there is also “a slight chance” that the storm could escalate to a category G3.
What are geomagnetic storms?
Geomagnetic storms are defined as “a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth,” per NOAA.
“These storms result from variations in the solar wind that produces major changes in the currents, plasmas, and fields in Earth’s magnetosphere.”
Geomagnetic storms are graded by severity on the G-Scale from G1 to G5, with the latter being the most powerful.
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What can a geomagnetic storm do?
A G1 classification is considered weak and can result in minor degradation of high-frequency radio communication and occasional loss of radio contact.
Category G2 storms are slightly stronger and could include limited blackout of high radio communication and loss of radio contact for tens of minutes.
Meanwhile, a G3 storm is more powerful still and could consist of a wide-area blackout of radio communication, and loss of radio contact for about an hour.
A storm that’s level G4 comprises communication blackout on most of the sunlit side of Earth for one to two hours.
And lastly, a G5 storm – which is quite rare – is considered ‘extreme’ and can be very powerful.
It can cause a radio blackout on the entire sunlit side of the Earth lasting for a number of hours.
