Dazzling auroras on Tuesday night delighted sky watchers even in southern US states such as Florida, where they rarely appear, and more colorful displays are expected again on Wednesday as the solar storm unleashed by the Sun continues to reach Earth.
Strong geomagnetic storm conditions caused by intense solar flares continue, the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center said. Currently classified as G3 on a scale of 1 to 5, indicating severity, the event could reach severe or G4 conditions, which could see more extreme solar weather, according to the center. A G4 is also in the forecast for Thursday, and the northern tier of the United States could see auroras tomorrow night, said Shawn Dahl, the center’s forecaster.
In addition to creating auroral displays, geomagnetic storms can disrupt communications, power grids, and satellite operations. The Space Weather Forecast Center said it had notified US power grid and satellite operators to prepare. Meanwhile, operators in the United Kingdom are closely monitoring solar activity for possible exposure.
“Our data shows that this event could be one of the biggest storms we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Dr Gemma Richardson, a hazard specialist at the British Geological Survey.
The British Geological Survey believes the current solar activity could trigger a G5 or extreme geomagnetic storm, the highest level. The survey also called Tuesday’s event a “cannibal storm” that disrupted communications and GPS satellite accuracy.
“On Monday, two coronal mass ejections lifted the sun within hours of each other,” the email said. the study’s geomagnetism team explained in a letter. “The first one moved slower than the second one … and so the second caught up with the first and they merged until they reached Earth. Hence the term “cannibalized” because the latter ate the former.
The aurora borealis lights up the night sky over Monroe, Wisconsin on Tuesday. – Ross Harried/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Solar storm disturbances
Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere. When these flares are directed towards the Earth, they can cause large disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field, which can lead to geomagnetic storms.
Among those feeling the effects of the storm is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The company is expected to launch NASA’s Escapade mission, twin satellites on the long journey to Mars, on its New Glenn rocket on Wednesday. However, increased solar activity is blocking the launch attempt for now.
“NG-2 Update: New Glenn is ready for launch. However, due to greatly increased solar activity and its potential impact on the ESCAPADE spacecraft, NASA is delaying the launch until space weather conditions improve. We are currently evaluating options for another launch,” Blue Origin said in a post on social media platform X.
The ripples of activity around our sun cause storms. This week, the sun fired three X-class flares, the most intense type of solar flare, followed by a string of coronal mass ejections.
According to Ryan French, a solar physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the recent increase in activity is due to an active sunspot region called AR 14274.
“AR 14274 is still capable of producing more X-class solar flares,” French said. “However, the region is now orbiting further away from us, so any eruptions from future rockets are diminishing as the day goes on.”
The Northern Lights illuminate the night sky in Johnston, Iowa. – Brian Owens/UGC/Reuters
According to the British Geological Survey, the X-class flare released on Tuesday caused a major solar particle storm, the largest since 2005. Tuesday’s solar activity also produced the largest measured geoelectric field since records began in 2012.
Disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field can reach the ground, causing electricity in the rocks and essentially creating an electric field in the earth. “It is usually small, about 0.001 volts per kilometer, but can be much higher during geomagnetic storms,” the research team noted.
On Tuesday, experts recorded a value of 3.5 volts per kilometer in the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, an unusually high number that “has not been recorded before”, according to a geological survey team.
High geoelectric fields can interfere with transformers and even cause them to shut down or overheat.
The changing solar cycle
The sun has an 11-year waxing and waning cycle. Heliophysicists believe that the highest, called solar maximum, occurred in 2024. in October
“Although we are still experiencing a period of increased solar activity, we are entering the waning phase of the solar cycle,” French said. “(Although) there are fewer sunspots and solar flares at this time, this period usually has the strongest solar flares.”
Increased solar activity causes the auroras that dance around the Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and the southern lights, or aurora australis. When charged particles from coronal mass ejections reach the Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere and create different colored lights in the sky.
An aurora danced in the sky over Cross Lanes, West Virginia. — Trey Raby/AP
Forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center believe Tuesday night’s aurora triggered the first of two of three predicted coronal mass ejections.
“One of them hit a lot harder than we would have imagined at first,” Dahl said.
When storms reach satellites 1 million miles from Earth, forecasters can measure its speed, magnetic field strength and magnetic orientation, he said.
“Is it facing the Earth, or is it facing the same as the Earth?” Dahl said. “If it turns in front of Earth, the activity will increase really quickly, and the storm level can increase very quickly. That’s what happened last night.”
A third solar storm is coming to Earth on Wednesday afternoon and will likely lead to more aurora activity that will be visible across the country this evening. And even if the colorful displays don’t seem visible to the naked eye, camera sensors in cameras and mobile phones can capture them.
In areas with clear dark skies, watch for the aurora, which may again sink far south over the United States. UK sky watchers in Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland also have a good chance of seeing them, according to the survey.
The last G5 storm to hit Earth was in 2024. in may
The storm was historic, but fortunately it did not reach 1859. At the level of the Carrington event, which caused telegraph stations to spark and burst into flames, it remains the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded.
During 2024 in May geomagnetic storm, tractor company John Deere said some customers who use GPS precision farming have experienced disruptions. But for the most part, power grid and satellite operators kept satellites in order and properly in orbit and managed the build-up of intense geomagnetic currents in grid systems.
Before 2024 in May, the last G5 storm to hit Earth in 2003 caused power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
The latest burst of activity reminds the French of a severe geomagnetic storm that hit Earth in 2024. in October Tuesday night’s storm was the third strongest in the current solar cycle, French said.
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about exciting discoveries, scientific advances and more.
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com