CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS - On March 23, 2019, a powerful solar flare will be released from the sun and the Earth will be right in line with it. Belonging to a G-2 class, the powerful solar storm has the potential to temporarily disable radio frequencies which will make radio communication much more difficult. It will also cause some power outages in high latitude areas.
The cloud of charged particles ejected from the sun causes a geomagnetic storm which will bring the northern lights, more popularly known as the aurora borealis to as far as Iowa, Colorado, and Washington.
Tamitha Skov, a space weather scientist based in Los Angeles, stated that if the storm is oriented properly, there is a chance that the lights would be visible several days after the impact.
Terry Onsager, a physicist at the Weather Prediction Center, explained that auroras form when charged particles from the sun collide with the atmosphere of the Earth. The geomagnetic storm would bring forth a sudden increase of charged particles which is said to supercharge the aurora's glow. He later compared the phenomenon to a big battery that is driving electricity through the Earth's system, which flows through the atmosphere. This makes the atmosphere glow.
Skov added that geomagnetic storms are not so common during the current period in the 11-year activity cycle of the sun.
However, other than the skies showcasing a picturesque display of lights, there are also other matters that people should be concerned with. There are reports for the possibility that the burst of solar energy could overwhelm power grids and shut down cell towers and communication networks.
Thomas Berger, a solar physicist in Boulder, Colorado, explains that when a solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME) arrives, it dramatically changes the Earth's magnetic field, making the uppermost layer of the atmosphere warmer.
This warmer layer of the atmosphere will battle a cloud of plasma, creating currents in the atmosphere and on the ground. The CME could possibly damage the equipment during the power outage and the equipment would have to be replaced before the grid is brought back up to operate.
In 1859, a geomagnetic storm, the Carrington Event, was triggered by an eruption of charged particles that streamed towards the Earth and particles from the sun was so powerful that it sent a charge through telegraph lines. This lit telegraph paper on fire and shocked the operators.
