A solar storm hits Earth today and tomorrow. The enormous solar flare has the potential to disrupt power grids, cause internet outages, and impact low-Earth orbiters. And it is already making the northern lights visible in New York, Wisconsin, and Washington State. And as far South as England, Scotland, and Ireland.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a G2, or moderate, geomagnetic storm watch “due to the anticipated arrival of a CME (coronal mass ejection).”
Scientists are doing ongoing analysis of the event which started midday on October 11th and expects lingering effects to persist into October 13th. Most recently the Earth experienced a solar flare on July 3rd.
But the most spectacular outcome of the massive CME could be the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights that are normally visible in the high-latitude regions of Earth, but “maybe visible as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state,” the advisory says.
The ethereal waves of color, the northern lights, appear when energized particles from the sun strike the planet’s upper atmosphere at astronomical speeds of up to 45 million mph, according to Space.com.
