Strong solar storm could disrupt communications and produce northern lights in US ( apnews.com )

An unusually strong solar storm headed toward Earth could produce northern lights in the U.S. and potentially disrupt communications this weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch — the first in nearly 20 years. The watch starts Friday and lasts all weekend.

NOAA is calling this an unusual event, pointing out that the flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth. An extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003 took out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.

The latest storm could produce northern lights as far south in the U.S. as Alabama and Northern California, according to NOAA.

raynethackery ,

Cloudy here.

khannie ,
@khannie@lemmy.world avatar

Apparently might be visible from Ireland too! (edit: which presumably means the UK also)

https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0510/1448363-solar-storm/

LostXOR ,

NOAA's predicting a Kp index of 8.33, hopefully we'll get some good auroras tonight!

FlyingSquid Mod ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

There was a map of my state showing where the aurora would likely be visible.

The area stopped at the county immediately north of mine.

Sigh.

LostXOR ,

Go out anyways and look north, there's a good chance you'll see something.

girlfreddy OP , (edited )
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

I remember watching the aurora from the Bastille Day solar storm in 2000. The whole sky in NorthWestern Ontario was red ... like a red umbrella shimmering down. I've never seen an aurora like it since.

Corkyskog ,

I assume there is like no cloud penetrative? We have light clouds and fog all week and that sucks.

LostXOR ,

Yeah they can't really be seen through clouds aside from maybe the clouds looking slightly brighter.

A_A ,
@A_A@lemmy.world avatar

The K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of Earth's magnetic field with an integer in the range 0–9 (...)
The official planetary Kp-index is derived by calculating a weighted average of K-indices from a network of 13 geomagnetic observatories (...)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index

Coldgoron ,

Why is this post so low voted?

kat_angstrom ,

Oh, because I hadn't upvoted it yet.

Coldgoron ,

https://media3.giphy.com/media/4JX4QM3UJ0jFS/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952zcqum0x7505ucygxcfg2u5zexa26cj160g7jv98v&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

wabafee ,
@wabafee@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0ce6de2f-803e-4ccd-92c6-a6638efff20f.jpeg

VelvetStorm ,

From the article it looks like it will be starting on the 15th.

henfredemars ,

The last I read said it could start as soon as midday today.

Solar wind looks good right now. We’ll just see what happens.

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

I didn’t want to work today, so… bring it on.

VelvetStorm ,

Shame I was sleeping.

criticon ,

It is very strong right now. Hopefully it didn't arrive early and it picks up even more in 10-12 hours
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/eb0920e5-ba60-4a43-8dfd-2167d48b5a77.jpeg

henfredemars ,

My magnetic loop ham radio antenna is ready.

Max_P ,
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

Fairly new to ham, what's nice to listen to during an aurora? Just funny noise bursts? Any antenna precautions so I don't fry my SDR?

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unusually strong solar storm headed toward Earth could produce northern lights in the U.S. and potentially disrupt communications this weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch — the first in nearly 20 years.

NOAA said the sun produced strong solar flares beginning Wednesday, resulting in five outbursts of plasma capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth.

Each eruption — known as a coronal mass ejection — can contain billions of tons of solar plasma.

NOAA is calling this an unusual event, pointing out that the flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group.

The original article contains 192 words, the summary contains 137 words. Saved 29%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Fiivemacs ,

Ohh what I would give to see how the world is without internet services globally for like...a week. Make it your best solar flare sun, nothing but the best

Carmakazi ,

A solar storm of that scale wouldn't just take down Facebook and Twitter for a while, it could destroy critical power infrastructure around the globe that would take months to repair. People would die.

SuiXi3D ,
@SuiXi3D@fedia.io avatar

And the state of Texas would make the survivors pay for it instead of the power companies that refused to use previous funding to implement preventive measures.

Fiivemacs ,

Im fully aware.

capital ,

That would likely cost a lot of lives.

Fiivemacs ,

Yup, it would most likely.

capital ,

You sound fucked in the head.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • tech
  • kbinEarth
  • testing
  • interstellar
  • wanderlust
  • All magazines
    •