On the night of Sunday and in the afternoon of October 2, several active events took place on the Sun at once.First
Observation data for solar activity. Image: Spaceweather.com
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coronal mass ejection particles are expected to reachEarth at midnight on October 4 and will cause a G2-class geomagnetic storm.A geomagnetic storm of this magnitude can cause emergency voltage drops in high-altitude power systems, damage transformers, and sometimes even disrupt the operation of spacecraft.
The increased activity of the Sun is consistent withan increase in the number of sunspots currently visible on its surface. Among them, sunspots AR3110 and AR3112 stand out, which simultaneously cause solar flares.
Sunspot AR3112. Image: Spaceweather.com
AR3112 is one of the biggest spots onsurface of the Sun in recent years and is reported to have over a dozen dark cores. The sunspot area covers 130,000 km of solar territory. According to Spaceweather.com, the positive and negative polarities of the various cores of this spot are constantly colliding with each other, which could lead to more X-class flares.
This sunspot is now facing the Earth andover the next two weeks could send even more outbreaks towards our planet, which means that the approaching storm will most likely not be the last.
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