http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/75271,news-comment,news-politics,aurora-borealis-could-be-visible-in-uk-after-huge-solar-flares-sun-northern-lights
Quote:
The sun has unleashed its biggest solar flare since 2006, raising the prospect that Britons could be treated to a rare glimpse of the aurora borealis over the next 48 hours. An unwelcome side-effect is the possibility that your sat-nav may stop working.
Since February 13, three huge flares have erupted from the sun’s surface. The biggest, an 'X-class' flare, came at 1:56am on February 15, according to the British Geological Survey.
X-class flares are the strongest type. When they erupt, they often coincide with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which spew clouds of charged plasma into space. Such 'solar tsunamis' are capable of knocking out communications on Earth. The February 15 flare was the biggest in more than four years and is heading towards Earth at a speed of 900km per second.
The BGS has issued a space weather alert, saying that northern parts of the UK could experience the Northern Lights late tonight or early tomorrow morning. A CME that arrived on February 14 already sparked aurora displays, which are more normally associated with polar regions, as far south as Northern Ireland.
After an extended period of low activity, the sun is currently going through a more active phase, which will reach its maximum in a few years’ time. The number of magnetic storms follows a similar cycle and will peak one or two years after the sun.
Communications, global positioning satellites and high voltage power grids are all vulnerable to space weather and scientists have been warning for some time about the consequences of the coming solar maximum, which could cause widespread chaos in a world so dependent on electricity, instant communication and satellites.
The latest flares coincide with the publication by the BGS of geomagnetic recordings dating back to Victorian times, which scientists hope will allow them to plan for future solar storms.
Alan Thomson, Head of Geomagnetism at the BGS, said: "Life today increasingly depends on technologies in space and on the ground that didn't exist when the magnetic recordings began. Studying the records will tell us what we have to prepare for and plan to make sure systems can resist the threat of solar and magnetic storms."
In 1972, geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois. And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.
So by my logic, that should be tonight
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