A coronal hole hundreds of thousands of kilometers wide has “opened” in the outermost part of the atmosphere of the sun in a position aligned to the earth, offering the way to a flow of solar wind that – according to the forecasts of the Space Weather Prediction Center of Noaa, who published the alert – could reach our planet tomorrow June 25th causing one geomagnetic storm Of G2 categorythat is, “moderate” (the maximum category is G5). The forecast is also confirmed by the Spaceweather Space Meteorology portal, which specifies how the terrestrial magnetic field disorder can lead to Polar Aurore at high latitudes especially in the southern hemisphere, where the long began with the June solstice polar night.
In spite of the name, a coronal hole It is not a real hole in the sun atmosphere: it is a region of the solar crown – the outermost part of its atmosphere – in which the lines of the magnetic field of our star “open” by making the crown colder and more rarefied, thus offering a facilitated step for the flow of charged particles emitted by our star that takes the name of solar wind. These are these high -speed particles at high speed from the sun to disturb the Earth’s magnetic field causing a geomagnetic storm. If a coronal hole had been associated with anExpulsion of Coronal Massathat is, a violent transfer of energy from the magnetic field of the plasma sun that composes its crown, there would have been the possibility of a more intense geomagnetic storm. Not being successful, the forecasts at the moment do not go beyond a “moderate” geomagnetic storm.
A geomagnetic storm of category G2 Don’t worry: It can cause temporary malfunctions to high latitudes electric grids and high -frequency radio communications, as well as disturbances in the structure of artificial satellites and animal disorders that exploit the geomagnetic field for their migrations. In our latitudes the effects will be likely to negligible or in any case very limited. Even those who dream of the possibility of returning to observe Boreal Aurore in our country will probably have to wait: under the 55th latitude There are no events of this type: according to the SpaceweatHerlive portal L ‘KP index – which measures the terrestrial magnetic field disorder – will not exceed the value 6considered insufficient to generate boreal aurore visible from Italy.
