Massive Solar Flare Sends Radiation Storm to Earth

The effects, which include the southern creep of the Northern Lights, will last through Tuesday night.

By Abby Ohlheiser | Posted Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, at 10:36 AM ET

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In this handout from the NOAA/National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center, shows the coronal mass ejection (CME) erupting from the sun late January 23, 2012. The flare is reportedly the largest since 2005.

Photo by NOAA/National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center via Getty Images

We're right in the middle of the biggest solar radiation storm on earth since 2005, thanks to a massive solar flare that left the sun on Sunday.

Although solar flares can cause disruption of satellite computer systems and long-distance power lines, and cause aircraft to avoid polar flights due to disruption of radio activity and increased levels of radiation, the biggest noticeable effect from the storm for most of us is likely to be northern lights reaching much farther south than usual, possibly as far south as New York.

As the Christian Science Monitor explains, Sunday's solar flare sent what's called a coronal-mass ejection (CME) flying towards earth at 4 million miles an hour, which is fast even for this sort of event. The CMEs are giant clouds of energized particles - protons, electrons, and heavy atomic nuclei formed by the nuclear fusion reactions that keep the sun shining.*

The storm hit Tuesday morning, and the effects are expected to last through the night. According to spaceweather.com, this storm is strong enough to interfere with radio communications along the poles, and to possibly cause some satellite computers to reboot. The storms caused by solar flares are measured on a scale of one to five. This storm is a three.

Curious about just how big this flare is? NASA has an animated map. Those dots represent planets.

As the Los Angeles Times explains, this flare is something of an opening act for more anticipated solar activity in the very near future: The sun is approaching a period of peak activity in 2013.

(綜合報道)(星島日報報道)美國太空氣候預測中心發出預報稱，受到來自太陽的高能粒子影響，地球磁場會在周二開始出現「磁暴」。屆時，部分航班、電網及衞星通訊可能受到影響。

該中心在周一的預報中表示，太陽的高能帶電粒子流於周日以每秒二千公里的速度衝向地球，其速度約為普通太陽粒子的五倍，預計到達地球的時間為美國東部時間周二早上九時（香港時間周二晚上十時）。預報稱，這次磁暴的總體強度為中等或較強，將持續到美國時間周三。

太空氣候預測中心官員翁薩格（Terry Onsager）表示，到達地球的高能粒子可能會干擾到部分高頻無綫通訊系統，北美、歐洲和亞洲之間的部分航班可能需要更改飛行路綫，發電廠也可能受影響。

翁薩格說：「當這些粒子襲擊地球，就像把一個大鐵錘丟進地球磁場，那些能量會讓地球磁場產生變動。」

太陽的高能帶電粒子流到達地球引起的全球性強烈地磁場擾動，稱為「磁暴」。電子流的速度愈快，磁暴的強度也就愈大。

太空氣候預測中心物理學家比賽克則指出，這次磁暴為二○○五年以來最大，在一到五級制中列為三級，仍為「強烈」的級別。比賽克又稱，極地區域可能受磁風暴影響最深，鑽油、極地探索和太空衞星也可能因此中斷，但預期不會造成太大影響。