Scientists say you should look up because of a solar storm
The First G4 Storms on a Planet Described by the Southwest Pulsars and Center for Polar Polarizable Events (SWPC)
The National Weather Service has issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch for the US for Friday night. The UK was also put on a watch by the Met Office. They’re worried about coronal mass ejections (CMEs), explosions of plasma and magnetized particles coming from the Sun, that could potentially impact critical infrastructure, including the power grid, internet cables, and satellites.
This is the first time since 2005 that the SWPC has issued a watch for a storm rated as G4, which is the scale’s second-highest rating. Critical infrastructure operators have been notified so they can take precautions, the center says.
Once on Earth, they interact with the planet’s magnetic field. That can suddenly induce an electrical current into power lines, railroad tracks, pipelines, and basically any long piece of infrastructure that can conduct electricity.
“I don’t think we have any real-time experience yet with a significant [geomagnetic] storm and fiber optic cables under the sea,” Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist at SWPC, said in a briefing. “There would be impacts, but they should not be to the level that would disable them.”
Changes in Earth’s atmosphere could pose a risk to satellites. The ionosphere, an upper layer of the atmosphere, becomes more dense — creating more drag for satellites in lower Earth orbit.
The first waves of particles are reaching the Earth. The planet is experiencing a G4 storm, which is the most severe type of storm. This is the first G4 storm to hit the planet since 2005.
NOAA warns several waves of flares will slam into the Earth over the next few hours and days, potentially disrupting communications and navigation, triggering power outages, and damaging satellites.
If everything stays on track, a memorable series of auroras could grace the skies over much of the United States during the overnight hours Friday into early Saturday morning.
A Large Solar Storm Slamming Into the Earth: How Your Satellites Could Be Smashed by a Coronal Mass Ejection
Sunspots are associated with solar flares and CMEs. Smaller spots can lead to more frequent and even more intense releases of matter from the sun.
“We have high confidence that a series of coronal mass ejections … are directed right towards Earth,” says Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Space Weather Prediction Center.
The most disruptive solar storm ever recorded came in 1859. As far south as Mexico and Hawaii were visible shimmering emeralds created by the “Carrington Event”. In addition, it fried telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America.
The storm’s radiation could cause other problems. At high altitudes, it could damage satellites, while at low altitudes, it’s likely to increase atmospheric drag, causing some satellites to sink toward the Earth.
The changes to orbits wreak havoc, warns Tuija Pulkkinen, chair of the department of climate and space sciences at the University of Michigan. Thousands of satellites have been launched by corporations since the last solar maximum. Those satellites will now see their orbits unexpectedly changed.
What the International Space Station and the Northern Lights can see in the Very Early Afterglow of the July 11th Supercollider-Asymmetries
The International Space Station lies in the atmosphere, so it should be safe for its inhabitants. NASA did not immediately provide details on what, if any, actions its astronauts would take.
People don’t really need to worry about preparing for this storm, as Satellite operators and utilities will be busy over the next few days.
“As far as what the general public should be doing, hopefully they’re not having to do anything,” says Dahl. The largest problem could be a brief blackout, so keep some flashlights and a radio handy, he says.
Folks across Europe and Asia may also see the auroras if the storm arrives during their nighttime hours. During the peak of an event of this magnitude, the northern lights could dance overhead around London, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow.
If the event is still on course it will give most of the country a great chance to see it in the middle of the night.
All three CMEs erupted with different intensities and speeds. The first CME was the largest and slowest of the trio, which allowed the second, faster CME to collide and merge into the first. The third CME of the bunch would eventually catch up as well, allowing all three surges of charged particles to reach Earth in a single wave about 60 hours after ejecting from the sun.
The sunspot is more than 10 times larger than Earth. The sunspot is so large that it can be seen through a pair of eclipse glasses.
