That big, bright spot in the northeast quadrant of the sun? It's an explosion of radiation and protons and plasma. AND IT'S HEADED STRAIGHT FOR US!!! But won't be too extreme. (Image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory)
The Space Weather Prediction Center is now saying this is the largest solar radiation storm since October 2003. I'm super serial: check out the
SWPC's Facebook page for as up-to-date information as you can find anywhere. And if you're like me and love charts and graphs, make sure you have some aspirin ready to steady your heart.
Don’t look directly at it, but the sun had its largest solar storm in six years over the weekend.
That’s right, it’s time for another edition of the Tulsa World Weather Blog...IN SPACE.
About 10 p.m. local time Sunday, a solar flare rated at M9—
just shy of the most powerful X-flares—erupted from the surface of the sun, sending all kinds of fun particles our way.
The first is radiation in the form of protons traveling at 93 million miles per hour (or about 1 AU an hour, if that’s your fancy), which started hitting Earth about an hour after the flare was seen and will likely continue through Wednesday.
In terms of ranking this storm, the NOAA Space Weather Center gave it an S3,
in the middle of the severity levels. There are about 10 of these every 11 years.
Radiation affects satellites most, causing damage to the solar panels and interference in the signal. People at high altitudes—like pilots or International Space Station passengers—can also be at heightened risk, but this flare isn’t
expected to cause much damage.
However, the Space Weather Center said Monday that some flights over the North Pole were rerouted and some flights were at lower altitudes to avoid heightened radiation levels. (For the most up-to-date info from them, follow their Facebook page
here.)
After electromagnetic and proton radiation comes the wave of plasma shot out in the corneal mass ejection. That’s what causes the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and electrical grid outages.
That is expected to hit Earth about 8 a.m. Tuesday and is forecast to be a G2 storm, possibly G3.
There have been stronger geomagnetic storms recently, so the levels forecast aren’t too wild this time.
And the worst of this storm is forecast to go north of Earth. Unlike last October, when the borealis were seen as far south as Alabama, the Northern Lights are expected to stay a bit further north this time.
Still! After several years of inactivity from the sun during the low point in its cycle, it’s an exciting time to be a space weather watcher.
--Jerry Wofford
