'Dramatic' solar flare could disrupt Earth communications

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'Dramatic' solar flare could disrupt Earth communications

By Kerry Sheridan | AFP – 4 hours ago

An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could

cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the

next day or so, officials said.

The potent blast from the Sun unleashed a firestorm of radiation on a level not

witnessed since 2006, and will likely lead to moderate geomagnetic storm

activity by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

" This one was rather dramatic, " said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the

NWS's Space Weather Prediction Center, describing the M-2 (medium-sized) solar

flare that peaked at 1:41 am Eastern time in the United States, or 0541 GMT.

" We saw the initial flare occurring and it wasn't that big but then the eruption

associated with it -- we got energy particle radiation flowing in and we got a

big coronal mass injection, " he said.

" You can see all the materials blasting up from the Sun so it is quite fantastic

to look at. "

NASA's solar dynamics observatory, which launched last year and provided the

high-definition pictures and video of the event, described it as " visually

spectacular, " but noted that since the eruption was not pointed directly at

Earth, the effects were expected to remain " fairly small. "

" The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it

covered an area of almost half the solar surface, " said a NASA statement.

Murtagh said space weather analysts were watching closely to see whether the

event would cause any collision of magnetic fields between the Sun and Earth,

some 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) apart.

" Part of our job here is to monitor and determine whether it is Earth-directed

because essentially that material that is blasting out is gas with magnetic

field combined, " he told AFP.

" In a day or so from now we are expecting some of that material to impact us

here on Earth and create a geomagnetic storm, " he said.

" We don't expect it to be any kind of a real severe one but it could be kind of

a moderate level storm. "

The Space Weather Prediction Center said the event is " expected to cause G1

(minor) to G2 (moderate) levels of geomagnetic storm activity tomorrow, June 8,

beginning around 1800 GMT. "

Any geomagnetic storm activity will likely be over within 12-24 hours.

" The Solar Radiation Storm includes a significant contribution of high energy

protons, the first such occurrence of an event of that type since December

2006, " the NWS said.

As many as 12 satellites and spacecraft are monitoring the heliosphere, and one

instrument in particular on board NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter is

measuring radiation and its effects.

" Certainly over the (two-year) lifetime of the mission this is the most

significant event, " said Harlan Spence, principal investigator for the cosmic

ray telescope for the effects of radiation, or CRaTER.

" This is really exciting because ironically when we were developing the mission

initially we thought we would be launching closer to a solar maximum when these

big solar particle events typically occur, " Spence told AFP.

" Instead we launched into a historic solar minimum that took a long, long time

to wake up, " he said.

" This is interesting and significant because it shows the Sun is returning to

its more typical active state. "

The resulting geomagnetic storm could cause some disruption in power grids,

satellites that operate global positioning systems and other devices, and may

lead to some rerouting of flights over the polar regions, Murtagh said.

" Generally it is not going to cause any big problems, it will just have to be

managed, " he said.

" If you fly from the United States to Asia, flying over the North Pole, there

are well over a dozen flights every day, " he added.

" During these big radiation storms some of these airlines will reroute the

flights away from the polar regions for safety reasons to make sure they can

maintain communications.

" People operating satellites would keep an eye on this, too, because geomagnetic

storming can interfere with satellites in various ways whether it is the

satellite itself or the signal coming down from the receiver. "

The aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and aurora australis (Southern Lights)

will also likely be visible in the late hours of June 8 or 9, NASA said.