A solar storm is forecast to hit Earth early Thursday after the sun unleashed a powerful solar flare — a burst of high-energy radiation — Sunday night.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Satellite captured a solar flare on the sun releasing a coronal mass ejection (CME) around 8:25 p.m. ET Sunday.
“[CMEs] are huge explosions of magnetic field and plasma from the Sun’s corona,” the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) explained in a post online. “When CMEs impact the Earth’s magnetosphere, they are responsible for geomagnetic storms and enhanced aurora.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOA) issued a G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday.
Here’s what you need to know about solar storms — and how they can impact the Earth — before one hits the planet on Thursday.
What is a solar flare?
Magnetic storms on the surface of the sun can cause what is known as “solar flares.”
“A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots,” according to NASA. “Flares are our solar system’s largest explosive events.”
Why are we under a G1 Watch the next two days? Because of this solar storm seen here in this GIF. The Sun unleashed a long duration C class flare that also produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards Earth. Send all of your Aurora reports to @TweetAurora #CitizenScience pic.twitter.com/VCO1Z6857g
— 🛰Michael Cook🚀 (@SpaceWxMike) February 14, 2018
If the storm is strong enough it will cause a CME, which is what happened in this case.
“The strongest flares are almost always correlated with coronal mass ejections,” NASA points out.
How do solar storms impact Earth?
There are a variety of things that could potentially happen.
The storm could increase the brightness and visibility of auroras, also known as the Southern or Northern Lights. ”Aurora may be visible at high latitudes, i.e., northern tier of the U.S. such as northern Michigan and Maine,” the NOAA said in an alert Wednesday.
Regions may notice weak power grid fluctuations, though that’s unlikely to happen in this “minor” storm.
Minor damage Earth-orbiting satellites,”especially those in high, geosynchronous orbits” could occur, NASA says.
High frequency radio waves could be “degraded,” NASA adds.
A NASA study warns solar storms could confuse the internal compasses of marine mammals, causing an increase in strandings on beaches.
“Geomagnetic storms are more disruptive now than in the past because of our greater dependence on technical systems that can be affected by electric currents and energetic particles high in the Earth’s magnetosphere,” NASA explains.
Should we be worried?
Not really. Solar storms are actually pretty common. And fortunately, Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field keep us well-protected.
“Some people worry that a gigantic ‘killer solar flare’ could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth, but this is not actually possible,” NASA explained in a 2013 article online.
Solar flares can’t directly hit our planet, but they can, however, cause plenty of disruptions (like the ones listed above).
