On the night of September 13, a cloud of solar plasma will hit the Earth with a probability of 99.9%, according to a message on the website of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Institute for Space Research and the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics (IKI and ISTP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“Currently, calculations show the arrival of solar matter tomorrow at around 22:00 Moscow time. The storm is expected to peak between 3 and 4 am, when the dense core of the cloud will reach the planet.” – says the message.
Astronomers noted that the models used this time had almost no room for error. They assessed the strength of the expected magnetic storm as moderate: level 1-2 on a 5-point scale.
The RAS added that there is a high probability of northern lights occurring at mid-latitudes.
Last time, a cloud of plasma ejected by the Sun missed Earth on September 11 by just a few degrees. Astronomers then warned that in the past two or three days the Sun had produced several flares of “moderate intensity” that could still reach the planet.
Earlier, the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of IKI and ISTP RAS predicted that the collision of a plasma cloud with the Earth should have occurred “at seven or eight o’clock in the evening” on September 10, Moscow time. The ejection was also supposed to cause a magnetic storm and an aurora on Earth, RBC recalls.
