After the discovery of 17 solar explosions originating from a single sunspot, two of which are going directly toward Earth, the bright northern lights may be seen as far south as the northern United States. We are being attacked by a 1,881,263-mph “cannibal coronal mass ejection” formed by the merging of two Earth-directed outbursts (3,027,599 kilometers per hour).
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, a major G3 geomagnetic storm will occur on the night of March 30 when it collides with the Earth’s magnetic field (SWPC). An incoming Sun blast may send the aurora to as far south as Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oregon during a G3 storm. Since Monday, a sunspot known as AR2975 has been firing bursts of charged particles from the Sun’s plasma soup (March 28).
Magnetic fields, formed by the movement of electrical charges, coil into kinks before unexpectedly breaking on the surface of the Sun. As a consequence of this energy release, solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—explosive jets of solar material—are launched (CMEs). Fast-moving solar eruptions overtake previous eruptions in the same area of space, scooping up charged particles to create a gigantic, coupled wavefront that generates a tremendous geomagnetic storm.
According to the SWPC, CMEs typically take between 15 and 18 hours to reach Earth. A little compression of Earth’s magnetic field occurs as waves of high-energy particles pass through it. These waves ripple along magnetic field lines, agitating molecules in the atmosphere, and releasing energy in the form of light to produce the night sky’s beautiful auroras.
Approximately 10 billion one-megaton atomic bombs’ worth of energy was released during the 1859 Carrington Event, the biggest known solar storm in recent history, according to scientists.
There were auroras brighter than the full Moon’s illumination in places as far south as the Caribbean when a tremendous torrent of solar particles slammed into Earth’s atmosphere. As in the case of the 1989 Quebec blackout, a comparable occurrence today would wreak billions of dollars in damage and extensive power outages.
