The sun has reached its "solar maximum period," which is a state of increased activity in its 11-year solar cycle. That's normal, but it will almost certainly lead to more solar storms - the kind that can disrupt our power grid and communications systems, but also light up the sky with brilliant auroras.
"It's official: We've reached the solar maximum phase! Expect solar flares, auroras and more," the space agency posted online.
Like storm seasons or Earth's weather patterns, the Sun experiences a weather cycle. It lasts 11 years. During this pattern, solar activity increases for about 5.5 years, then decreases, then increases again.
"This is the cosmic equivalent of hurricane season. We're entering another one," Mark Mish, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center, told Mashable as solar activity increases.
Scientists monitor sunspots - cooler areas on the sun's surface that often trigger solar flares - to determine when the sun reaches its peak activity (the literal solar maximum - the month when solar activity peaks - will occur during this period). More sunspots mean more activity.
The Sun, a medium-sized star, has already shown intense activity in 2024, producing a magnificent Northern Lights display.
"In May 2024, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) shot clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storm on Earth in two decades - and possibly among the strongest auroral displays recorded in the past 500 years," NASA said .
When solar particles hit our planet, some of them are trapped by the Earth's magnetic field, where they move to the poles and collide with molecules and particles in our atmosphere. During this collision, these atmospheric particles heat up and glow.
How solar storms affect Earth and humans
There are different types of potentially problematic solar explosions that can affect Earth:
Solar flares: Explosions of light from the Sun's surface. Driven by the behavior of the Sun's magnetic field, they eject extreme amounts of energy (visible light, X-rays, etc.) into space.
Coronal mass ejection (CME): This occurs when the Sun ejects a mass of superhot gas (plasma). "It's like taking a piece of the sun and throwing it out into space. Sometimes solar flares cause CMEs and sometimes they don't," explained NOAA's Mish.
Solar energetic particles (SEPs): These are essentially solar flares with lots of energetic particles. They are particularly dangerous to astronauts and satellites.
The big question is how the different types of flares and radiation affect our lives. Fortunately, life on Earth is protected from such particles and radiation. The atmosphere protects us from things like X-rays and energetic particles emitted into space. Meanwhile, Earth's powerful magnetic field (created by its metallic core) deflects many particles from solar storms and protects us from the relentless solar wind, a continuous stream of particles (electrons and protons) from our star.
Yet when a strong solar flare or CME hits Earth, a spectrum of potential technological hazards can occur, ranging in severity from short-term problems to extremely large damage.
A powerful CME, for example, could cause strong currents in our power grids, among other detrimental impacts to satellites.
"In 1989, a powerful CME knocked out power to millions of people in Quebec, Canada. A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on March 12 that year, and then, shortly after 2:44 a.m. on March 13, the currents found a weakness in Quebec's power grid. In less than two minutes, Quebec's entire power grid lost power. During the 12-hour power outage that followed, millions of people suddenly found themselves in dark office buildings and underground pedestrian tunnels, as well as in stalled elevators. Really scary," writes NASA astronomer Stan Odenwald. | BGNES
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