Solar eruptions expected to hit Earth

Earth is set to be hit by a fresh solar eruption on Wednesday and Thursday, that could trigger a geomagnetic storm, researchers have said. This comes just a week after a similar moderate geomagnetic storm was triggered by the powerful eruptions hurtled by the Sun towards the Earth. According to tweets by the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences (CESS) under the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, a filament eruption was observed on the Sun south of disk center on February 6. The eruption was recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), said CESS.

//CESSI SPACE WEATHER BULLETIN//07 FEB 2022//SUMMARY: NOMINAL SPACE WEATHER// A filament eruption was observed on the Sun south of disk center on 06 FEB. SOHO LASCO detected a partial halo CME being launched soon thereafter.
+ pic.twitter.com/0o5Z0QjSRH

— Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (@cessi_iiserkol) February 7, 2022

The CESS further said that the Earth will be impacted by the moderate geomagnetic storm in the range 451-615 kilometres per second from February 9 (05:48 UT) to February 10 (09:53 UT), which translates to 11.18am IST on February 9 to 3.23pm IST on February 10.

Our DBM model fit indicates very high probability of Earth impact with modern speed in the range 451-615 km/s with arrival time uncertainty ranging from 9 FEB 05:48 UT to 10 FEB 09:53 UT. The impact is unlikely to be very hazardous. Moderate geomagnetic storms are likely. pic.twitter.com/NxtN0ZpCja

— Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (@cessi_iiserkol) February 7, 2022

The solar storm could also touch off geomagnetic activity that could make the Northern Lights visible.