The second highest solar storm hits the US – Auroras even in New York

A massive solar storm hit large parts of the United States on Sunday and Monday. The storm was caused by a solar flare that appeared on the sun Friday afternoon. This allowed auroras to be observed as far south as the US and Northern Europe.

As the US Weather and Oceanographic Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center writes, Friday, April 21, saw strong so-called coronal mass ejections. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a solar flare that causes large outbursts of plasma and magnetic fields from the corona — the top, hotter layer — of the sun.

The effects of this CME combined with the solar wind from a coronal hole (colder regions in the sun from which solar wind often escapes into the atmosphere) resulted in a significantly stronger storm than predicted. “The geomagnetic storm came earlier and was much stronger than expected,” writes NOAA. Geomagnetic readings were at G4 (heavy) level versus the expected G2 level – only G5 would be even stronger on the scale.

As the Earthsky platform writes, the Earth’s magnetic field has been disrupted since April 23. “These effects typically include widespread but manageable irregularities in power grids, spacecraft, global positioning systems and radio communications,” NOAA said. If geomagnetic storms continue into the evening hours, it can cause the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, to become visible in areas where they would not otherwise be visible.

Already a month ago strong solar towers hit the earth. As then, auroras were reported in the US and northern UK and Denmark. As ABC reports, the lights could be seen as far south in the US as New York. As a reminder: New York is further south than Rome!

In addition to light and heat radiation, the sun constantly emits large amounts of matter. This matter is thrown into space by stronger outbursts that regularly occur at the surface. Scientists speak of the so-called solar wind.

This solar wind consists mainly of protons and electrons – electrically charged particles. When it reaches Earth (after traveling through space for about two to three days), the matter encounters oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Simply put, this reaction causes an electrical discharge that, among other things, also causes a glow at the north and south poles. However, when the sun is particularly active, the Northern Lights are not confined to the poles – as we are currently experiencing.

Incidentally, the northern lights can take on different colors: The usual colors are red, green and blue. This can also result in mixed colors such as violet, white and sometimes yellow. The colors that can be seen in the sky depend on the different components of the atmosphere and also on the altitude at which the spectacle takes place.

Apparently, the Northern Lights could even be seen from the plane:

(lacquer)