Solar Flares Briefly Interrupt Communications On Earth, Geo-Magnetic Storm Expected FridaySolar Flares Briefly Interrupt Communications On Earth, Geo-Magnetic Storm Expected Friday
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The sun shot off three major solar flares this week that briefly affected a few forms of communication on earth.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), flares from the sun caused temporary blackouts in high frequency radio communication between 7 and 9 a.m. eastern on Tuesday morning.
Solar flares occur when the sun ejects a sudden blast of radiation. Though our atmosphere protects us from this radiation, the flares can temporarily interrupt radio and GPS communications as they pass through our orbital neighborhood.
NASA captured some awesome pictures and videos of Tuesday’s flares from their Goddard Space Flight Center.
Check them out:
Flares are often – but not always – accompanied by coronal mass ejections. The ejection is a huge cloud of electrons, ions, and atoms that pass through the sun’s corona and are ejected into space. When the ejections hit earth’s atmosphere, they can cause shockwaves and geomagnetic storms. Scientists from the NOAA say they are expecting a minor geomagnetic storm on Friday as an ejection from the recent flares reaches earth.
The NOAA doesn’t expect the ejections to cause any significant problems. They say that if anything, people watching the aurora borealis will just see an extra special show.
Sources: ABC, Mashable, Wikipedia
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