A “cannibal” coronal mass ejection (CME) born of multiple solar storms, including a surprise “dark eruption,” is currently on a collision course with Earth and could trigger a sizable geomagnetic storm on our planet when it hits Tuesday (July 18).
CMEs are large, fast-moving clouds of magnetized plasma and solar radiation that are occasionally hurled into space together solar flares — powerful explosions on the sun’s surface, which are triggered when horseshoe-shaped plasma rings are nearby Sunspots snapping in half like an overstretched rubber band. If CMEs crash into Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms — disturbances in our planet’s magnetic field — that can trigger partial radio blackouts and produce vibrant auroras much farther from Earth’s magnetic poles than normal.
A cannibal CME is created when an initial CME is followed by a second faster one. When the second CME reaches the first cloud, it engulfs it, creating a single massive wave of plasma.
On July 14, the sun launched a CME next to a dark eruption — a solar flare containing unusually cool plasma that makes it look like a dark wave compared to the rest of the sun’s fiery surface — from sunspot AR3370, a small dark spot which until then had gone largely unnoticed, according to Spaceweather.com. On July 15, a second, faster CME was launched from the much larger sunspot AR3363.
A simulation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center showed that the second storm will catch up with the first CME and form a cannibalistic cloud, with a strong likelihood of hitting Earth on July 18.
Related: 10 signs the sun is preparing for its explosive peak: solar maximum
Both CMEs came from class C solar flares, the intermediate level of solar flare strength. By themselves, they would be too weak to trigger significant geomagnetic storms. But their combined size and velocity mean they are likely to trigger a G1 or G2 level disturbance, the two highest classes for a geomagnetic storm.
Cannibal CMEs are rare because they require successive CMEs that are perfectly aligned and travel at specific speeds. But there have been several in recent years.
In November 2021, a cannibal CME crashed into the Earth, triggering one of the first major geomagnetic storms of the current solar cycle. Two more CMEs crashed into our planet in 2022, on first in March AND another in Augustbut both triggered only minor storms of class G3.
Cannibal CMEs become more likely during solar maximum, the chaotic peak of the sun’s roughly 11-year solar cycle. During this time, the number of sunspots and solar flares increases dramatically as the sun’s magnetic field becomes increasingly unstable.
Scientists originally predicted that the next solar maximum would arrive in 2025 and would be weak compared to past solar cycles. But Live Science recently reported that the sun’s explosive peak it could arrive sooner – and be more powerful – than previously anticipated. Strange solar phenomena, such as cannibal CMEs, also indicate that solar maximum is fast approaching.
Earth has already been hit by five G1 or G2 geomagnetic storms this year, inclusive the most powerful storm in more than six years. These storms superheated the thermosphere, the second-highest layer of Earth’s atmosphere highest temperature in more than 20 years.
The number of sunspots is also increasing as we get closer to solar maximum, reaching the highest total in nearly 21 years in June.
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Image Source : www.livescience.com