The Northern Lights, normally seen around the Arctic Circle, could be visible in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oregon tonight due to an intense geomagnetic storm.
The spectacular natural phenomenon is the result of a giant “cannibal” solar flare hurtling toward Earth at 1.8 million miles per hour.
The first warning of the geomagnetic storm was issued Monday by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) – initially declared a G2 but has since been upgraded to G3.
Space weather forecasters use the G-scale to describe the strength of a geomagnetic storm – caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. G1 is the weakest and G5 is the most extreme.
The rise on G3 is the result of stronger solar activity with 17 flares emanating from a single sunspot on the Sun, with two of them heading towards Earth.
A SWPC warning said, “Aurora can be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon.”
The Northern Lights, normally seen around the Arctic Circle, could be visible in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oregon tonight due to an intense geomagnetic storm. Image from a photo agency
The first warning of the geomagnetic storm was issued Monday by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) – initially declared a G2 but has since been upgraded to G3
WHAT ARE AURORS AND WHAT CAUSES THE BREATHTAKING GRAPHICS OF NATURE?
The Northern and Southern Lights are natural displays of light that are triggered in our atmosphere and are also known as “aurora”.
There are two types of aurora – Aurora Borealis, meaning “dawn of the north,” and Aurora Australis, “dawn of the south.”
The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the earth’s atmosphere.
Normally, sometimes called a solar storm, the particles are deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field.
But during stronger storms, they enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles, including hydrogen and helium.
These collisions emit light. Aurorae appear in many colors, although pale green and pink are common.
These storms are usually harmless, although they can cause disruption by affecting electronics and satellites.
A recent example was the loss of 40 SpaceX Starlink satellites that were launched into their desired orbits due to a geomagnetic storm earlier this year.
According to SWPC, Thursday’s storm could cause some irregularities in power system voltages.
It can also cause satellites to be towed in low Earth orbit, which can affect their ability to communicate with Earth and cause problems with GPS navigation.
However, these are remote possibilities from a G3 storm but could increase the risk if the storm updates.
Also known as the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights are mostly seen in the high latitudes, making any glimpse farther south a rare treat.
The latest potential sighting was made possible by sunspot AR2957, which has been emitting eruptions of electrically charged particles from the Sun’s plasma soup since Monday (March 28).
Sunspots are areas on the Sun’s surface where powerful magnetic fields created by the flow of electrical charges entangle, eventually releasing a huge blast of energy that leads to a solar flare.
Coronary mass ejections from cannibals occur when fast-moving solar flares overtake previous flares in the same region of space, forming a giant wavefront that unleashes a powerful geomagnetic storm.
A solar, or geomagnetic, storm is a major disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere — the area around the Earth controlled by the planet’s magnetic field — caused by CMEs.
Although our Sun gives us life, it also frequently “sneezes,” spewing billions of tons of hot plasma into space in colossal clumps of matter laced with magnetic fields — in other words, CMEs.
It emits gigantic flares, bursts of intense electromagnetic radiation — X-rays, gamma rays, and radio bursts — accompanied by streams of high-energy particles.
CMEs typically take about 15 to 18 hours to reach Earth.
The UK Met Office’s space weather division said the next one is expected to arrive today, with its impact likely to continue into tomorrow, eventually tapering off by Saturday (2 April).
Space weather forecasters use the G-scale to describe the strength of a geomagnetic storm – caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. G1 is the weakest and G5 is the most extreme
The rise on G3 is the result of stronger solar activity with 17 flares emanating from a single sunspot on the Sun, with two of them heading towards Earth. Image from a photo agency
WHAT IS A CANIBAL SUNBURST?
Sunspots are areas on the Sun’s surface where powerful magnetic fields created by the flow of electrical charges entangle, eventually releasing a huge blast of energy that leads to a solar flare.
Cannibalistic coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occur when fast-moving solar flares overtake previous flares in the same region of space, forming a giant wavefront that unleashes a powerful geomagnetic storm.
CMEs typically take about 15 to 18 hours to reach Earth.
The aurora appears when atoms in Earth’s high atmosphere collide with energetic particles from the Sun, creating stunning shades of green with hints of pink, red and purple.
It is more commonly seen in winter when nights are cold, long, and dark.
When a solar storm approaches, some of the energy and small particles can escape into the Earth’s atmosphere along the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles.
There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere, resulting in beautiful plays of light in the sky – the aurora, or Northern Lights. Oxygen emits green and red light, while nitrogen glows blue and purple.
The aurora can be seen near the poles of both the northern and southern hemispheres. To the north, the display is known as Aurora Borealis and to the south, Aurora Australis.
The Northern Lights have fascinated people on Earth for centuries, but the science behind them has not always been understood.
Our planet has an invisible force field, the magnetosphere, that protects us from dangerous charged particles from the sun.
The magnetosphere is the area around the Earth controlled by the planet’s magnetic field.
Science expert Marty Jopson said: “While it protects us, it also creates one of the most amazing phenomena on Earth – the Northern Lights.
“When the deadly solar winds hit Earth’s magnetosphere, some of the charged particles are trapped and hurled straight toward the poles by Earth’s magnetic field lines.
“And when they reach Earth, they hit atoms and molecules in our atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light.”
SOLAR STORMS ARE A SIGNIFICANT HAZARD TO ASTRONAUTS AND CAN DAMAGE SATELLITES
Solar storms or solar activity can be broken down into four main components that can affect the Earth:
- Solar Flare: A large explosion in the sun’s atmosphere. These flares consist of photons that emanate directly from the flare location. Solar flares only hit Earth when they occur on the Earth-facing side of the Sun.
- Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs): Large clouds of plasma and magnetic fields erupting from the Sun. These clouds can erupt in any direction and then move on in that direction, plowing through the solar wind. These clouds only cause effects on the earth when they are directed towards the earth.
- High-velocity solar wind streams: These come from coronal holes on the Sun that form all over the Sun, and normally the winds only hit Earth when they are closer to the Sun’s equator.
- Solar Energetic Particles: Highly energetic charged particles thought to be released primarily by tremors forming at the front of coronal mass ejections and solar flares. When a CME cloud plows through the solar wind, solar energetic particles can be created, and because they are charged, they follow the magnetic field lines between the Sun and Earth. Only charged particles that follow magnetic field lines that intersect the earth will have an effect.
Although these may seem dangerous, due to the relatively low orbit of manned missions, astronauts are not immediately threatened by these phenomena.
However, you do need to worry about cumulative exposure during spacewalks.
This photo shows the Sun’s coronal holes in an X-ray image. The Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, is structured by powerful magnetic fields that, when closed, can cause the atmosphere to suddenly and violently release bubbles, or tongues, of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections
The damage from solar storms
Solar flares can damage satellites and cause huge financial costs.
The charged particles can also threaten airlines by disrupting Earth’s magnetic field.
Very large flares can even create currents within power grids and turn off the power supply.
When coronal mass ejections hit Earth, they cause geomagnetic storms and enhanced auroras.
They can interfere with radio waves and GPS coordinates and overload electrical systems.
A large influx of energy could flow into high-voltage grids and permanently damage transformers.
This could shut down businesses and homes around the world.
Source: NASA – Solar Storm and Space Weather