The scientist spoke about the consequences
Immediately 14 flares have occurred on the Sun in the last 24 hours. Among them is the most powerful X-ray flare of class X in the last four years, which can threaten the Earth with a strong magnetic storm. The solar plasma will touch our magnetic field on Saturday, October 30, at about 10 am. The indignation can last up to two days. What to prepare for the inhabitants of the planet, explained the director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IZMIRAN) Vladimir Kuznetsov.
Outbreaks were reported at the Physics Institute. Lebedev RAS. According to Sergei Kuzin, an employee of the Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, most of the flares were low-emission, belonging to classes C and M, but one was given class X, which means it belongs to the highest class of X-ray flares. True, the index of this outbreak is the very initial one (X.1.0), and history knows outbreaks that went beyond the classification – X.24 and higher.
According to Vladimir Kuznetsov, the growth of a new, twenty-fifth cycle of solar activity began last year, its activity will increase, and the group of flares that have occurred on the Sun now only testify to this.
– For comparison, I can cite November 2003, when there was a maximum of solar activity, – Vladimir Dmitrievich recalls. – It was recorded by our satellite Koronas. Then the so-called longitudinal asymmetry occurred on the Sun, when all active regions clustered on one half of the star. There were large magnetic field gradients. A large active area came out from behind the left limb and passed along it for two weeks. She gave 17 flashes. Of these, 9 were the most dangerous, X-ray, class X. Storms then raged on Earth one after another. If usually one storm lasts from several hours to a day, then they “superimposed” on each other for a week.
But now, according to Kuznetsov, it is still impossible to talk about the asymmetry that was in 2003, since the Sun is still far from its maximum activity, and it cannot have a large number of active regions.
“If now one area has appeared, on which 14 flares have occurred, we can say that it has a strong magnetic field,” says the director of IZMIRAN. – And if in the future these will be formed more often, this may indicate that the begun 11-year cycle of solar activity will be high. Now, let me remind you, he is in a recovery phase, and the maximum will come in 4-5 years.
Since X-ray flares can disable satellite navigation and radio communication systems, employees of the IZMIRAN Space Weather Center have already informed Roscosmos and other interested organizations about possible disturbances in the magnetic field.
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