Strong magnetic storm occurred on Earth, causing red northern lights: Scientists incorrectly estimated its power

On the second half of November 5, a strong magnetic storm was recorded on Earth, reports the Institute of Applied Geophysics.

According to the institute’s specialists, the degree of disturbance in the planet’s magnetic field over the past 24 hours has reached the G3 level: we are talking about a fairly high degree; G5 is considered the highest, extreme level. The G5 storm was last recorded on September 11, 2005.

Against the background of a magnetic storm, a red aurora was observed in the sky of some regions of Russia, including the southern regions, where such phenomena are rarely observed. Residents of Donbass, Crimea, Rostov and Omsk regions shared photographs of this rare optical phenomenon on social networks.

According to specialists from the Laboratory of X-ray Solar Astronomy of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientists incorrectly estimated the power of the solar flare and the speed of the plasma flow ejected by it, which, in fact, led to the strongest magnetic field. storm

“Both the speed and power of the emission, as is now clear, were completely incorrectly estimated, although this still does not explain how such a weak cause could cause a storm of the observed level,” the scientists said in a statement.

A powerful plasma stream was ejected by the Sun towards the Earth on November 3, which coincided with an extremely weak solar flare. This release was considered as “ordinary”.

“Based on this, as well as from the measured speed of the cloud, the arrival of plasma to the Earth was expected... on November 6, and was indicated in forecasts by all world agencies as a weak magnetic storm of level G1, that is, the lowest class,” the scientists noted.

In fact, it turned out that the clouds of gas traveled a distance of 150 million kilometers from the Sun to the Earth in just two days and ultimately hit the Earth’s magnetic field on November 5, and not on the 6th, and with greater force than expected.

According to experts, on the morning of November 6, the Earth is still in a cloud of solar plasma. And the temperature of interplanetary gas in the vicinity of the Earth rose to 300,000 degrees, that is, about 10 times, while the speed of the solar wind increased from 350 to 500 kilometers per second.

Note that, according to scientists, powerful flares on the Sun, which lead to disruption of communications and interference in electrical networks on Earth, will continue until 2025, as the Sun is currently going through a period of high activity, which repeats approximately every 11 years.