Solar storm hits Earth, producing colorful light shows across Northern Hemisphere

Marcia Dunn, Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unusually beardown star large wind hitting Earth produced stunning displays of colour successful nan skies crossed nan Northern Hemisphere early Saturday, pinch nary contiguous reports of disruptions to powerfulness and communications.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a uncommon terrible geomagnetic large wind informing erstwhile a star outburst reached Earth connected Friday afternoon, hours sooner than anticipated. The effects of nan Northern Lights, which were prominently connected show successful Britain, were owed to past done nan play and perchance into adjacent week.

Many successful nan U.K. shared telephone snaps of nan lights connected societal media early Saturday, pinch nan arena seen arsenic acold southbound arsenic London and confederate England.

PHOTO GALLERY | Northern lights create dazzling spectacle successful nan eastbound Idaho sky

There were sightings “from apical to tail crossed nan country,” said Chris Snell, a meteorologist astatine nan Met Office, Britain’s upwind agency. He added that nan agency received photos and accusation from different European locations including Prague and Barcelona.

NOAA alerted operators of powerfulness plants and spacecraft successful orbit, arsenic good arsenic nan Federal Emergency Management Agency, to return precautions.
“For astir group present connected satellite Earth, they won’t person to do anything,” said Rob Steenburgh, a intelligence pinch NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

The large wind could nutrient bluish lights arsenic acold southbound successful nan U.S. arsenic Alabama and Northern California, NOAA said. But it was difficult to foretell and experts stressed it would not beryllium nan melodramatic curtains of colour usually associated pinch nan bluish lights, but much for illustration splashes of greenish hues.

“That’s really nan gift from abstraction weather: nan aurora,” Steenburgh said. He and his colleagues said nan champion aurora views whitethorn travel from telephone cameras, which are amended astatine capturing ray than nan naked eye.

Snap a image of nan entity and “there mightiness beryllium really a bully small dainty location for you,” said Mike Bettwy, operations main for nan prediction center.

The astir aggravated star large wind successful recorded history, successful 1859, prompted auroras successful cardinal America and perchance moreover Hawaii. “We are not anticipating that” but it could travel close, NOAA abstraction upwind forecaster Shawn Dahl said.

This large wind poses a consequence for high-voltage transmission lines for powerfulness grids, not nan electrical lines ordinarily recovered successful people’s homes, Dahl told reporters. Satellites besides could beryllium affected, which successful move could disrupt navigation and connection services present connected Earth.
An utmost geomagnetic large wind successful 2003, for example, took retired powerfulness successful Sweden and damaged powerfulness transformers successful South Africa.

Even erstwhile nan large wind is over, signals betwixt GPS satellites and crushed receivers could beryllium scrambled aliases lost, according to NOAA. But location are truthful galore navigation satellites that immoderate outages should not past long, Steenburgh noted.

The sun has produced beardown star flares since Wednesday, resulting successful astatine slightest 7 outbursts of plasma. Each eruption, known arsenic a coronal wide ejection, tin incorporate billions of tons of plasma and magnetic section from nan sun’s outer atmosphere, aliases corona.

The flares look to beryllium associated pinch a sunspot that’s 16 times nan diameter of Earth, NOAA said. It is each portion of nan star activity ramping up arsenic nan sun approaches nan highest of its 11-year cycle.

NASA said nan large wind posed nary superior threat to nan 7 astronauts aboard nan International Space Station. The biggest interest is nan accrued radiation levels, and nan unit could move to a amended shielded portion of nan position if necessary, according to Steenburgh.
Increased radiation besides could frighten immoderate of NASA’s subject satellites. Extremely delicate instruments will beryllium turned off, if necessary, to debar damage, said Antti Pulkkinen, head of nan abstraction agency’s heliophysics subject division.

Several sun-focused spacecraft are monitoring each nan action.

“This is precisely nan kinds of things we want to observe,” Pulkkinen said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from nan Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for each content.