On Sunday, March 23, the Earth will be hit by the first powerful magnetic storm since the beginning of January, according to the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy IKI and ISSF RAS.
The organization's website notes that a sharp deterioration in space weather has been recorded in the vicinity of the Earth since the beginning of the day on March 22. The reason for this was the M1.2 stellar flare, as a result of which a cloud of solar plasma was ejected.
"Apparently, the flash, although insignificant, unbalanced a large prominence (dense plasma fiber), which was ejected to the Ground. In any case, one of these structures, which was detected on the visible side of the Sun a couple of days ago, is now missing from the images. It is assumed that this particular object is now in space and will hit the Earth within a day," the scientists say.
According to their calculations, this strike will occur between 3 and 6 a.m. on March 23 (Sunday), Moscow time.
"The forecast of magnetic storms is still being formed at the moment, but G3-level events are expected in advance. The last time storms of comparable level were observed in early January of this year,"the laboratory concluded.
Earlier, EADaily reported that at the end of December, two flashes of the highest power class occurred on the Sun, one of which lasted 37 minutes.