SANSA warns geomagnetic storm will impact Earth over the weekend
A strong geomagnetic storm is expected over the weekend and could disrupt communications and navigation systems, as well as potentially cause the reappearance of the Southern Lights over South African skies, the South African Space Agency (SANSA) warns.
The origin of this storm is a solar flare that erupted from sunspot 3842 on October 3.
"This is the strongest Earth-facing solar flare recorded by SANSA in the past seven years and measured X9.05. Solar flares are measured in five categories, A, B, C, M and X with X being the strongest," it points out.
SANSA adds that the X9 flare on October 3 impacted on high-frequency radio communications, resulting in a total radio blackout over the African region which lasted for up to 20 minutes.
SANSA has been monitoring sunspot region 3842 since September 29, when it appeared on the Sun's visible disk. It is about 1.5 times larger than the Earth’s surface area. The sunspot produced several significant solar flares and associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are waves of charged energetic particles. These waves of energetic particles will impact Earth over the weekend, causing geomagnetic storms.
Geomagnetic conditions are expected to range from a G1 (minor) storm to a G3 (strong) with storm levels possibly reaching G4 (severe) storm throughout the day on October 5.
SANSA points out that South Africans had a rare glimpse of the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, on May 10 during what was a G5 (extreme) storm.
Comments
Research Reports
Latest Multimedia
Showroom
Leading condition monitoring specialists, WearCheck, help boost machinery lifespan and reduce catastrophic component failure through the scientific...
VISIT SHOWROOM
M and J Mining are leading suppliers of physical support systems as used by the underground mining industry. Our selection of products are not...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
