A severe solar storm is expected to bring about an increase in the number of aurora borealis on Friday, with forecasts predicting the aurora may even be seen in the southern US state of Alabama.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center announced Thursday that a series of solar flares and eruptions from the sun could cause intense magnetic storms and “spectacular auroral displays” across Earth starting Friday evening and into the weekend. did.
This was the first severe geomagnetic storm monitoring issued by the agency Since 2005.
“We have a rare event happening,” said Sean Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. “We’re a little concerned. We haven’t seen this in a long time.”
Satellite and power grid operators are being advised to prepare, as strong geomagnetic storms have the power to disrupt not only satellites in space, but communications and power grids on Earth, Dahl said.
He said forecasters expect the storm could arrive as early as Friday around 8 p.m. ET.
“There’s something happening 93 million miles away, so we’re not very sure about the timing of these events,” Dahl said of Earth’s distance from the sun.
NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer, a spacecraft orbiting about 1 million miles from Earth, will help forecasters measure the solar wind and better understand its timing and potential impacts. .
The aurora borealis, or aurora borealis, results from charged particles ejected from the sun during solar storms. The colorful display is created when clouds of these energetic particles collide with Earth’s magnetic field and interact with atoms and molecules in the planet’s upper atmosphere.
Auroras typically illuminate the night sky at high latitudes, but during periods of high solar activity they can be spotted further south than usual.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
