Sun’s fiery filament towards Earth may spark geomagnetic storm

On October 4, a coronal mass ejection or CME (large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s corona) emerged from the southern hemisphere of the sun, snapping like a rubber band.

Experts have reason to believe that the infernal discharge is approaching Earth and could graze our planet’s magnetic field on October 7 or 8.

If this phenomenon does indeed deliver a glancing blow to Earth, the event might result in a G1-class geomagnetic storm here.

G1 flares are relatively harmless. But they could result in power grid failures, minor disruption in satellite function and impact migratory animals.

While observatories caught the event, the data stream stopped before the entire CME was visible, leading to certain gaps in the coronagraph data and possible confusion with other nearby-in-time CMEs.

The sun is slowly inching towards the peak activity phase of its 11-year solar cycle, which is why there’s been a flurry of explosive activity on its surface since the beginning of 2022.

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