Tomorrow, a powerful blast of radiation from the Sun is projected to slam into Earth's atmosphere, causing Northern Lights in various nations.
European Space Agency said the hot material, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), burst from our nearest star on January 30 after a massive M1-class solar flare. M-class solar flares are medium-sized space weather events that can produce radio blackouts on Earth for a short period of time.
According to astronomer Tony Phillips of Spaceweather.com, the explosion emanated from a sunspot dubbed AR2936, was particularly long-lasting - probably for more than four hours.
The storm has been assigned a G2 (moderate) intensity rating. Geomagnetic storms are graded on one to five, with G1 being the least severe and G5 being the most severe. However, even low-scoring space weather can pose serious risks.
Thankfully, the flare on Wednesday will not be powerful enough to harm life or technology on Earth.
The afternoon sun shines bright as the Chinese national flag at the Ancient Observatory in Beijing flutters in the wind on February 17, 2011. The largest solar flare in more than four years has caused disruptions to shortwave radio communications in China, state media has reported. The solar flare, a huge explosion on the sun's surface caused by magnetic activity, affected transmissions in southern China on February 15, state media said.
What Are CMEs?
CMEs, massive expulsions of heated material termed plasma from the Sun's outer layer, create solar storms.
By energizing particles in our planet's atmosphere, they can cause colorful auroras to arise.
Space.com said the most recent outburst is a "halo CME," which looks larger than the Sun in coronagraph photos captured by sungazing satellites as solar particles approach Earth, forming a circular halo.
As predicted by a forecast model from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, solar particles from this halo CME will impact Earth on Wednesday.
Each solar storm is rated on a scale of one to five, with a G1 indicating "small" and a G5 indicating "severe."
Storms at the top of the scale wreak havoc on our planet's magnetic field, causing power grids and communications networks to go down.
Weaker Solar Flare To Cause Auroras in Some Countries
Auroras such as the Northern Lights are caused by weaker solar flares.
Those natural light displays are caused by solar wind bombarding the Earth's magnetosphere, resulting in vivid green and blue displays.
The UK Met Office (per Independent) said tomorrow's aurora may be seen on the northern horizon as far south as Northern England and Northern Ireland. However, it will most likely be at the top of Scotland.
Similar light shows may be observed in the night sky in other northern nations and places, such as Canada and Alaska. This may be visible from the Arctic Circle through the northern United States and as far south as New York, Minnesota, and Washington.
Stronger Solar Flares Might Destroy Planet
Larger solar flares have wreaked havoc on our planet in the past, The US Sun said.
A powerful solar explosion in 1989 sprayed Earth with so many electrically charged particles that the Canadian province of Quebec lost electricity for nine hours.
They can injure astronauts operating on the International Space Station, either through radiation exposure or by interfering with mission control communications, in addition to generating problems for our technology.
The Earth's magnetic field serves to protect humans from the more severe effects of solar flares.
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