What You Should Know

I see that “big” media has picked up on the idea of solar storms, in the wake of two most recent and very strong X-class events on the Sun. The headlines are breathless and I’ve already spotted some science bloopers on some sites that should know better (sites that used to have good science reporters, but who let them go in order to concentrate on important things, like Snooki’s baby).

Anyway, for all news about solar activity, I first turn to Spaceweather.com. The folks there have noted the impact of the coronal mass ejection was light at first, but warn it could pick up in the coming hours. Thus, people who live at high latitudes — northern regions around 50 degrees north or more — should get to see even MORE auroral displays than usual. If the storms get strong enough, those of us at lower latitudes might get to glimpse some aurorae, too.

All this solar activity is actually pretty much on schedule for the Sun. It goes through cycles of high and low activity, and we’re headed into a time of very high activity called “solar maximum”.  So, increased numbers of flares and coronal mass ejections and sunspots are part of this process.  It’s perfectly normal and nothing to get worried about. But, there will be the big media reports, and there will be some fascinating whack jobs tying this to something mysterious and paranormal.

That, too, is perfectly normal and nothing to get excited about.

Space weather, which is a term that covers all the solar-caused and geomagnetic disturbances that occur in near-Earth space, does have its down sides.  While we gaze at lovely aurorae, giant disturbances in Earth’s uppermost atmospheric layers and nearby space can disrupt power grids, satellite communications, GPS signals, and many other bits of our modern technology. So, that IS of concern,  and during such events you will read reports that warns of GPS outages or communications outages due to space weather (solar storms). This happens because these bits of technology rely on radio signals which bounce off the layers of our atmosphere in order to propagate (travel) long distances on our planet. In the case of GPS, those signals go THROUGH the atmosphere.  So, if the upper atmosphere is disturbed by space weather, those signals can get broken up, delayed, or even lost. It’s an interesting and potentially dangerous side-effect of living near a star.

A while back we worked with MIT’s Haystack Observatory on a series of short videos about space weather. The series is called Space Weather FX. You can watch the whole series here and learn more about the effects that the Sun has on us and our technology.  Also keep an eye on Spaceweather.com for the latest and most accurate info on solar activity.