Solar tantrum disrupts life on Earth
Unusually vigorous activity from the sun this week bathed the Earth in high-energy radiation threatening major disruption to communications, aviation and electricity distribution.
Already dubbed ‘storm of the century’, a giant solar flare erupted on Tuesday. The flare prompted a gigantic coronal mass ejection – a cloud of magnetised plasma bigger than the sun itself. This bathed the Earth in intense X-ray radiation, seriously disrupting radio communications.
The ensuing stream of high-energy particles threatened satellites, while humans on the ground were protected by the Earth’s atmosphere. But passengers and crews on commercial jets flying at high altitudes were exposed to doses of radiation equivalent to a medical chest X-ray, the European Space Agency reports.
As the space weather appeared to be calming, Wednesday night witnessed a second flare. The corresponding coronal mass ejection is expected to hit Earth today. Across the world operations teams are on alert to respond to potential problems.
Steps are being taken to safeguard aircraft, and high altitude power grids are being carefully monitored.
Tuesday night’s eruption was particularly unusual as it reached Earth very rapidly according to Dr Andy Breen, a solar expert from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Material ejected from the sun in this way normally travels to Earth at 1.5 million kilometres per hour. But in this case, the cloud sped across space at four times the pace.
One spectacular consequence of this period of solar activity may be the appearance of Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, caused by disruptions to the Earth’s magnetic field, Dr Breen explained.
‘There is a good chance of the northern lights – perhaps even overhead or to the south – so it’ll be worth keeping an eye on the sky if there’s a gap in the clouds.’
Separately, New Scientist reported findings this week suggesting the sun was more active than it has been for a millennium.
Ilya Usoskin and a European team of geophysicists discovered the trend after reconstructing sunspots – a symptom of ferocious magnetic activity – for the last 1150 years.
