地球將受強太陽磁暴影響

美國太空氣候預測中心23日預報稱，受來自太陽的高能粒子影響，地球磁場24日將出現磁暴。屆時，部分航班、電網以及衛星通信可能受到影響。

預報稱，太陽的高能帶電粒子流22日以每秒2000公里的速度衝向地球，其速度約為普通太陽粒子的5倍，預計到達地球的時間為美國東部時間24日早上9時（香港時間24日晚上10時）。

預報稱，這次磁暴的總體強度為中等或較強，將持續到25日。

太空氣候預測中心官員指，到達地球的高能粒子可能會影響到部分高頻電波通信，這可能會迫使部分航班更改飛行路線。另外，部分電網和衛星也將受到影響。國際太空站太空人也應採取措施，避開高能輻射。

太陽的高能帶電粒子流到達地球引起的全球性強烈地磁場擾動稱為磁暴。電子流的速度越快，磁暴的強度也就越大。

'Solar bullet' to hit Earth
2012-01-24 07:27

Cape Town - Charged particles from the sun will strike the Earth on Tuesday after a huge solar flare erupted on Monday.

The M9-class solar flare was observed by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory and erupted from a sunspot on Monday at 05:59, SpaceWeather.com reported.

The coronal mass ejection or CME is travelling to Earth at 2 200km/s which means that it could potentially cause communications disruptions to networks on the planet that could include disabling satellites in its path.

In the polar regions people could observe spectacular auroras, that may even be visible at lower latitudes.

The CME may have a particular impact in South Africa because of the South Atlantic Anomaly where the Earth's magnetic field is weakest.

The CME is scheduled to hit at about 16:18 on Tuesday and South Africans should take care to avoid being exposed directly to the sun.