(ORDO NEWS) — A massive solar storm that swept across Earth forced SpaceX to delay a Starlink launch from Florida and temporarily disrupted several Canadian oil rigs because GPS signals were too inaccurate.
SpaceX ultimately launched these satellites after a geomagnetic storm classified by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as severe. Storm G3 has subsided.
The liftoff occurred approximately 4.5 hours after the originally scheduled launch time.
Last February, the company lost a batch of 40 satellites after launching them directly into a relatively weak geomagnetic storm.
A comment:Scientists have not been able to fully explain (or are not tired of) how the atmosphere is clearly changing.
Note that this was a “relatively weak geomagnetic storm”, but the impact it did appear to be much stronger than expected; as was the case with the report of this recent storm.
The G3 storm that delayed Monday’s launch was the result of a combination of factors.
In recent days, streams of fast solar wind have flowed towards Earth from what is known as a coronal hole, which is essentially a hole in the Sun’s magnetic field.
On top of that, two coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge ejections of solar plasma, left the active region or sunspot over the weekend and quickly reached our planet on Sunday and Monday (February 26 and 27).
The solar storm spawned a burst of auroras across North America and Europe, with sightings reported from South Dakota, Wisconsin and even California.
Auroras have been reported much farther south than usual, even in France. The appearance of the aurora borealis was observed over Australia’s westernmost major city, Perth.
Auroras, as well as crashes like those experienced by SpaceX and oil companies in Canada, are likely to become more regular in the next two years as the solar cycle, the 11-year ebb and flow of star sunspot, solar flare and CME generation, approaches. to its maximum.
Earlier this year, the European Space Agency reported that some of its low-orbiting satellites were losing altitude due to atmospheric bulging.
The current solar cycle, the 25th since records began, also promises to be much stronger.
A comment:there were no top forecasters to predict these dramatic changes we’ve been seeing in our skies in recent years, and so we can probably safely assume that they really don’t know what’s in store for us.
But, judging by recent events, it seems that we will soon see everything for ourselves.
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