Did you wear sunscreen today? We normally don’t take care of our skin because we don’t mind the sunlight or the mighty sun can do to us as we should.
Solar storms might not affect our skin but they do affect other things around us. What then? Well the storm shakes the planet’s magnetic field, airplanes and power grids can get affected. Airlines and power grid operators might have troubles because of the storm, so they were warned about it.
Flights that have paths near the North Pole (Polar flights) can get even more affected by the storm, because their passengers can get exposed to radiation and communications can be interrupted. Some Airlines like Delta took precautions to use alternate routes.
The solar storm arrived today at approximately at 6a.m. EST, it is the strongest solar storm since December 2006.
A space weather scientist, Joseph Kunches who works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, stated that “We expected the freight train. The freight train has gone by, is still going by, and now we’re watching to see how this all shakes out”, They are not able to predict the orientation of the magnetic field.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said in a study that a severe solar storm could provoke the loss of reactive power. But later Kimber Mielcarek added that “Currently there has been no impact to the bulk power system from the recent solar flare” and that “The NERC will continue its normal pattern of 24/7 monitoring, especially in regard to the current solar storm.”
A massive solar flare started the storm earlier this week and started to grow as it moved outward from the sun.
This morning Joseph Kunches said that the solar flare had hit the planet and they were monitoring its effects. Then added: “The CME passed the ‘A’ satellite a million miles upstream — the first sentinel up there — at about 3:45 a.m. MST this morning.”
People who live at Northen U.S. might be able to see the display of the Northen Lights.
We will think more about the effects of the sun’s eruption on the earth after this, time to look up the sky.
