Earth’s magnetic field is calming down as the planet comes out of the 20-hour-long strong geomagnetic storms followed by coronal mass ejection from the Sun. The eruptions from the Sun struck the planet’s magnetic field triggering a G3 category geomagnetic storm spiking auroras on lower latitudes.

The eruptions from the sun hit Earth’s magnetosphere at an exponential speed of 583 kilometres per second. The magnetosphere is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetic field.

According to spaceweather.com, the glow of a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm spread almost to Los Angeles. The agency reported that the CME that sparked the display was a special “Cannibal CME” that is a mashup of multiple solar storm clouds striking Earth all at once.

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center under the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a coronal mass ejection is large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona. They can eject billions of tons of coronal material. CMEs travel outward from the Sun at speeds ranging from slower than 250 kilometres per second to as fast as near 3000 km/s. The fastest Earth-directed CMEs can reach our planet in as little as 15-18 hours.

The cannibal CMEs that Sun erupted this time contained tangled magnetic fields and compressed plasmas that sparked auroras. A steep jump in transverse magnetic fields, density and speeds of the plasma wind signatures were noticed as the erupting struck Earth’s magnetic field. The Sun has been highly active for a week now as it hurtles dangerous storms towards the inner planets of the solar system.

While an assessment of the damages remains to be done, the Space Weather Prediction Center had warned that it may lead to “voltage irregularities in the electric power grid, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices and intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems.” Meanwhile, the International Space Station (ISS) could also have been affected due to surface charging and orientation problems with the storm interfering with radio signals to and from Earth.

Nasa is yet to release an assessment of the impact of the cannibal eruptions from the Sun.

This was the second such eruption from the Sun within a week as a geomagnetic storm hit Earth after eruptions raged on October 26. As the Sun wakes up in its new solar cycle, the massive ball of fire hurtled dangerous flares towards Earth. The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) had captured the image of the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) in which the Sun released X1-class flares.

According to Nasa, a geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth. The largest storms that result from these conditions are associated with solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, arrives at Earth.