The second magnetic storm of February began on Earth

At night, the second magnetic storm of February began on Earth, which peaked at 05:00 Moscow time. This was announced on February 15 in the Telegram channel of the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy at the Institute of Space Research (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"The second magnetic storm of February began on the planet at night, which is still in the range from weak to medium. The peak of the event at the moment was around 5 a.m. Moscow time," the message says.

The indicator of the natural phenomenon reached G1.3 on a scale from 1 to 5. The storm was caused by geomagnetic disturbances caused by a large coronal hole in the Sun, which at that moment was located opposite the Earth. At the same time, the storm started a little earlier than expected.

The IKI RAS also reported a significant increase in the brightness of the aurora borealis, which were especially bright from 1 to 5 a.m. Moscow time. The aurora intensity index at its peak was 8.6 on a 10-point scale, which is a fairly high value. Aurora sightings were reported mainly from the northwestern regions of Russia, while no data on the phenomenon were reported in the central regions, including Moscow.

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On February 5, the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy at the IKI RAS announced the launch of planetary-scale magnetic storms on Earth. According to scientists, these natural phenomena are a common reaction of the Earth's magnetosphere to exceptionally high solar activity.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.