Two solar flares that erupted on the sun’s surface on Tuesday have sent large coronal mass ejections through space towards Earth. The CMEs have the potential to damage satellites in space on their way through and disrupt the Earth’s geomagnetic field, a problem for GPS systems and radio.
[Update 4pm] According to ionosphere observers, the ejections may cause magnetic fluctuations in Earth's atmosphere, potentially causing an appearance of the aurora australias this afternoon in Tasmania (that is, if overcast conditions dissipate in the next hour or so). If you're a Tasmanian, give us mainlanders a view - send us your photos on Twitter or Facebook, and we'll put them in a gallery here on PopSci.com.au for the world to see.
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The Sun’s activity occurred on Tuesday evening and involved a large solar flare erupting on the sun, followed up by a smaller flare an hour later. Both sent shockwaves across the sun and resulted in the expelling of two coronal mass ejections into space, travelling at almost a thousand kilometres a second.
When will these CMEs arrive at our planet? NASA thinks they’ll get here around 5pm AEDT, and could cause a serious geomagnetic storm causing “possible disruption to high frequency radio communication, global positioning systems (GPS), and power grids.”
Video capturing the solar flare eruptions, as well as additional images of the event, can be seen here.
[SMH]
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