Tag: space weather

Solar Storms Could Impact Earth’s Weather!

 

That white blotch in the upper left quadrant? That’s a Solar Death Storm.

It seems like not that long ago, Earth was facing down some major solar energy activity from the very ball of plasma that sustains life on our planet.  In fact, it was just at the end of January when some massive solar flares impacted Earth’s magnetic field,supercharging the aurora borealis, forcing planes to adjust their travel patterns, and generally making scientists nervous.  Well, time to get nervous scientists:  a pair of massive solar flares will be impacting earth within the next 24 hours.

“Super Tuesday? You bet!” said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  ”It’s hitting us right in the nose.  By some measures this is the strongest one since December of 2006.”

The solar flare, an X5-4-class sun storm, is expected to cause no major problems, but due to the storm’s strength, people are already taking precautions with their communications systems and air travel routes.  The NOAA’s space weather scale has been set at an R3, which means special communication precautions have been taken, but Kunches expects the storm may peak at a G3/S4 level.  That means power surges may affect the power grid and that the astronauts on the ISS will have to take shelter from the radiation bombardment.

Earth Hit By Largest Solar Radiation Storm Since 2003!

Image Source: Pixabay.com

It’s been a long time since Earth was hit by a solar storm of the magnitude of the solar storm that hit Earth’s atmostphere over the weekend; according to the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the earth was hit by the largest solar storm since 2003 beginning on late Sunday night and stretching into Tuesday morning.  A solar storm is a combination of two events, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).  Basically, it means the sun’s been burping radiation at our home planet.  Even if we don’t see it (and we usually don’t), it can do some crazy things to satellite communications and the like.

“Being hit by a CME does not automatically mean aurora,” said NASA solar physicist C. Alex Young, explaining why we all didn’t get another aurora borealis sighting. ”A CME has to be what we call ‘geo-effective.’  It must have enough mass, speed and magnetic field (including the orientation of the field) in order to disturb the magnetosphere sufficiently (to generate aurorae).”

The region responsible for this storm was AR 1402 (the AR stands for active region, meaning a place with a lot of bubbling sun activity).  Expect more such eruptions, not just from this area, but from the sun in general.  The year 2013 is slated to be a solar maximum year, meaning the sun is going to be very active and earth is going to be getting a nice tan thanks to all the solar energy.