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10 May 2022: When An Enigmatic Sunspot Created An Electro-Magnetic Blackout On Earth
- The intense solar flare caused a coronal mass ejection (CME), releasing plasma that could impact Earth's atmosphere, especially satellites and power grids.
A solar flare. (Representative Image)
On 10 May 2022, an intense solar flare occurred on the solar surface at universal time of 1:55 pm (around 07:25 pm IST).
A curious sunspot named AR3006, which has been observed by sun-watchers with interest for quite some time, exploded creating a solar flare.
An X category flare means the energy output is 10,000 times more than an A flare and 100 times more than a C category flare. However, there are flares even stronger than the X category.
The explosions causing solar flare are equivalent to a billion hydrogen bomb explosions. The latest massive solar flare that occurred on 10 May belongs to the category of X1.5, which means it slightly exceeded the X class solar flare.
This sunspot shows an interesting multiple personality. It mostly has a magnetic filed that is a +/- at its vast surface. But at the primary core of the sunspot that is deep down from the surface, sunspot's primary core, the polarity reverses and becomes -/+.
Solar flares release plasma and its effective magnetic field from the solar surface into the interplanetary space of the solar system. These are called coronal mass ejection (CME). When they collide with the Earth's atmosphere they can affect the satellites orbiting the Earth.
The emission from the current flare reached the Earth's atmosphere and ionised the upper atmosphere. Around the Atlantic Ocean, it created a shortwave radio blackout and considerably weakened electro magnetic transmissions of below ~30 MHz frequencies for more than an hour.
