Image credit: European Space Agency
Sometimes, you hear news of amazing things happening and wish you were there. This is not one of those moments. While we were staring into South Australia’s night skies on Tuesday, 14 May, searching for any remnants of the Aurora Australis spectacle, we were blissfully unaware of the sun releasing its most intense solar flare since 2005.
Before I proceed, I implore you, don’t look up! Eyeballs are best served fresh, not fried.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the SOHO Satellite observed an 8.7-class flare, making it the largest recorded in the current 11-year solar cycle, which is nearing its peak. Fortunately, the flare occurred on a sector of the sun that was rotating away from Earth. Had it been facing the Earth, we could have possibly experienced disruptive impacts.
Image source: NASA
The SOHO satellite, a collaborative mission between the European Space Agency and NASA, is critical in monitoring solar activity. Utilising instruments such as the Michelson Doppler Imager, SOHO provides valuable early warnings by detecting active regions on the far side of the sun, potentially weeks before they rotate into Earth’s view.
The past week’s solar activity included numerous flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that posed risks to power grids, communications, and satellite operations. It also resulted in the glorious Aurora Australis that everyone in South Australia appeared to see… except me (I’m still sulking).
The seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station were instructed to take precautions by staying within shielded parts of the station to avoid exposure to heightened radiation. However, NASA provided reassurance that they were never in real danger.
NASA said the weekend geomagnetic storm caused one of its environmental satellites to rotate unexpectedly because of reduced altitude from the space weather, and go into a protective hibernation known as safe mode.
A full analysis of data collected from this event is still underway. Bryan Brasher at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado said that once all the data is collated, this latest flare may prove to be even more intense than initially measured.
So, there may be more news to come. Watch this space… on your screen that is, not the sky.
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