Space
New Year's Eve Solar Storm May Spark Natural Northern Lights Fireworks
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Dec 31, 2015 10:17 AM EST
A powerful solar storm may light up the sky on New Year's Eve with the Aurora Borealis. On Monday (Dec. 28), a sunspot cluster erupted and blasted an M-class flare directly at Earth. Now, a coronal mass ejection (CME) caused by this flare may spark the aurora just in time for 2016.
The solar flare actually caused an ionization event, which caused a radio blackout over South America, Africa and the south Atlantic Ocean. Since then, a geomagnetic storm associated with the CME has slammed into the planet as of Wednesday.
In this case, the storm was predicted to be a stronger G3 storm that lasted through Wednesday and then persisted through Thursday as a lesser G1 storm.
It's the CME, though, that may impact New Year's Eve's night skies. The CME hit Earth's magnetic field early this morning. While the impact was weak and actually didn't produce any geomagnetic storms, it could still affect the appearance of auroras. As Earth moves through the CME's turbulent wake, the magnetic field of our planet could be affected and cause the appearance of these spectacular lights.
With that said, it's still uncertain whether auroras will appear. However, you can sign up for text and voice alerts for this phenomenon on Spaceweather.com, just in case these natural fireworks do grace the night skies on New Year's Eve.
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First Posted: Dec 31, 2015 10:17 AM EST
A powerful solar storm may light up the sky on New Year's Eve with the Aurora Borealis. On Monday (Dec. 28), a sunspot cluster erupted and blasted an M-class flare directly at Earth. Now, a coronal mass ejection (CME) caused by this flare may spark the aurora just in time for 2016.
The solar flare actually caused an ionization event, which caused a radio blackout over South America, Africa and the south Atlantic Ocean. Since then, a geomagnetic storm associated with the CME has slammed into the planet as of Wednesday.
In this case, the storm was predicted to be a stronger G3 storm that lasted through Wednesday and then persisted through Thursday as a lesser G1 storm.
It's the CME, though, that may impact New Year's Eve's night skies. The CME hit Earth's magnetic field early this morning. While the impact was weak and actually didn't produce any geomagnetic storms, it could still affect the appearance of auroras. As Earth moves through the CME's turbulent wake, the magnetic field of our planet could be affected and cause the appearance of these spectacular lights.
With that said, it's still uncertain whether auroras will appear. However, you can sign up for text and voice alerts for this phenomenon on Spaceweather.com, just in case these natural fireworks do grace the night skies on New Year's Eve.
Related Articles
Aurora Mystery Solved: Strange, Sudden Bursts are Caused by Swirling, Charged Particles
Earth's Moon Has Unexpected Activity by Interacting with the Solar Wind
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone