The Sun is directing a strong stream of energetic particles known as a solar storm toward Earth, which may cause radio blackouts and the northern lights, or aurora borealis. As per NASA’s spaceweather.com, on May 27, a class X2.8 storm—one of the most powerful solar events in recent memory—erupted from the sunspot AR3664. “Giant explosions on the sun that send energy, light, and high speed particles into space” is how NASA describes the strongest solar flares, called X-class flares.
The solar storm has already caused disruptions to shortwave radio on Earth, but fortunately the latest eruption’s coronal mass ejection (CME) will not affect our planet.
This starburst caused a huge coronal mass ejection to erupt on the side of the Sun facing away from us, Ryan French, a solar physicist at the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, wrote on X.
A solar storm travels toward Earth at the speed of light and ionises (gives an electrical charge to) the top of the planet’s atmosphere when it reaches us. This ionisation causes a higher-density environment for the high-frequency shortwave radio signals to navigate through to support communication over long distances.
The electrons collide with the radio waves more frequently after being struck by these charged particles, which causes signals to deteriorate or disappear entirely.
The scientific community is increasingly concerned about AR3664, which is scheduled to reappear on June 6. The eruptions at that time have the potential to cause additional geomagnetic storms that could have a negative effect on Earth.