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The past month has seen a startling increase in activity by the Sun with four powerful X-class solar flares recorded; including one that measured as a X9.3, the strongest since 2005. Coronal mass ejections (CME) – huge arcs of plasma that erupt from the Sun’s surface – interfered with GPS, and high-frequency radio transmissions, and generated spectacular aurora displays. But, in addition to the sudden intensity of these events, this recent burst of activity has left scientists scratching their heads.read more

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A series of power outages across the continent that occurred on April 21 may have been caused by a geomagnetic storm. Coordinated cyberattacks were initially blamed for the events, although a fire caused by an overloaded circuit breaker in one of the major outages ruled out that theory. However, it is possible that a geomagnetic storm may have caused the near-simultaneous outages, as there had been an ongoing solar storm at the time.
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‘Monster’ solar flares that knock out power grids and satellite navigation systems may soon become predictable. Scott McIntosh, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and lead author of a study just published in Nature Communications said that his group has linked the timing of the flares with the position of the magnetized bands in the Sun’s atmosphere.

Comparable to the jet stream that encircles the Earth, these bands carry opposite magnetic polarities that tend to warp and buckle upwards. When they’re far apart from each other, sun spot activity is at its highest. As they get closer together – and to the Sun’s equator – their opposing energies create heightened instability.
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A G4 level solar storm is now striking Planet Earth. As a G4 storm, it is one level below G5, the most intense level of storm. Auroras should be visible as far south as the central United States tonight. There will be radio blackouts and possible isolated power failures in areas where power lines are not properly grounded. The storm is accompanied by a powerful coronal mass ejection, which will reach the region of Earth on Sunday. Coronal mass ejections contain substantial amounts of very energetic material, and along with it, in some cases, effects on Earth’s weather. This is caused by changes in solar radiance that affect our atmosphere. 
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