“The strongest since 2017” –

A geomagnetic storm is coming to Earth due to a new solar flare. This is the news that quickly began to make the rounds on the web and alarm everyone. According to the analysis of industry experts reported by the newspaper Il Giornale, a “cloud of solar plasma” could overwhelm Europe and, therefore, interfere with radio contacts. What could the effects be? High frequency transmissions may be suddenly interrupted. An example? Those of planes trying to communicate with traffic control towers. But not only. The phenomenon could have serious repercussions on telecommunications services, electricity infrastructure and satellites.

But we understand what it is. “We are in a moment of strong activity of the Sun,” he reads. Geogmagnetic storm is a “disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by the activity of our star”. There is a clarification that dampens the anxiety: “This is fortunately a temporary event and can be detected by the magnetometers present on our planet”. When this phenomenon occurs, the Sun “produces intense emissions of matter from its corona, triggering a solar wind whose particles then collide against the Earth’s magnetic field”. The expected duration, in general, is 24 or maximum 48 hours.

According to what emerges from the most recent measurements, a flare of the Sun occurred on March 23. The National Solar Observatory telescope in Australia observed two sunspots and a strong explosion. Yesterday, then, contact with the magnetic field of our Planet began. “The impact opened a crack in our planet’s magnetosphere and unleashed a G4-class geomagnetic storm, the strongest since September 2017,” explained Tony Phillips, an astrophysicist at SpaceWeather.com. This was reported by Meteo.web.