Astronomers urged Russians to prepare for a unique natural phenomenon
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A powerful ejection of solar material can trigger the brightest aurora
Astronomers reported on Monday a bright aurora that can be visible across almost the entire territory of Russia. It is associated with a fairly powerful coronal ejection on the Sun.
As reported to MK at the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the source of the emission was a solar flare with index M8.7, which occurred on September 21 at 15.42 Moscow time in the central zone of the solar disk. The shock wave from it reached the Earth on Monday night, then throughout the day we were under its influence. Astronomers warned that this magnetic storm could cause powerful aurora.
“The brightness of the aurora depends on the speed of the solar wind flying towards us and the value of BZ, which indicates the peculiarity of the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetic field,” explains leading researcher at IZMIRAN Anatoly Belov. – For example, in 2003, BZ (the north-south component of the interplanetary magnetic field) reached a value of -38 – the aurora was then visible at fairly low latitudes, namely in Athens!
The magnetic storm this Monday, September 25, was accompanied by a BZ index of -24.7. Its development was expected before the end of the day, and maybe until the beginning of the next. One coronal mass ejection could be supplemented by a series of other ejections, which, according to scientists, are commonplace during the observed period of increasing solar activity.
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