Previous Solar Flares - Geomagnetic Storms

When a solar flare hits the Earth's magnetic field, it can result in a solar storm that affects the power grid and radio communication.

Experts at SpaceWeather.com stated: "A beautiful solar flare (M4-class) on April 29th hurled a CME into space. It might sideswipe Earth today.

"The glancing blow, if it occurs, could spark a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm on May 2nd or 3rd."

A CME stands for coronal mass ejection, a type of solar flare.

It's essentially a huge expulsion of plasma from the Sun's outer layer, called the corona.

This mass ejection of particles from the Sun travels through space and the Earth uses its magnetic field to protect us from damaging radiation.

Each solar storm that hits Earth is graded by severity and this one is only expected to be a "G1 minor".

This means it could cause weak power grid fluctuations and have a small impact on satellite communications.

Fortunately, solar storms aren't thought to be dangerous to humans on Earth.  READ MORE...

Solar Flares Hitting Earth

In the Tom Hanks movie Finch, a massive solar flare destroys the ozone layer, annihilating almost all life on Earth (and leading to the invention of annoying robots). While a mass coronal ejection really could hit Earth at any time—a sun-like star 100 light years away called EK Draconis literally just launched one of these things—the good news is that even the worst solar storm probably wouldn’t be as terrible as Finch is (as a movie). The bad news: While it wouldn’t be “building annoying robots” bad, a coronal ejection could still be pretty awful.

Short of destroying the sun, there’s nothing humans can do to prevent solar flares—but you can still know what to expect, and prepare accordingly.

The Coronal Mass Ejection: A visually stunning catastrophe
According to NASA, Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are “large clouds of solar plasma and embedded magnetic fields released into space after a solar eruption.” If the Earth happens to be in the path of one of these ejections, and the ejection is powerful enough, things could get very crazy, very quickly.

The charged particles from the sun entering Earth’s magnetic field would cause geomagnetic storms, lighting up the sky with a brilliant aurora borealis that would be visible all over the Earth. Beautiful, for sure. But massively disruptive to our power system.

How bad could it get?
In 1859, the largest geomagnetic storm ever recorded hit Earth. The Carrington Event lit up the sky so brightly that people thought dawn had come. The “Northern Lights” were visible as far south as Cuba, and the nascent telegraph system went down, with telegraph operators reporting being shocked by their machines, or being able to still send messages, even though their power supplies were disconnected.  READ MORE...