In recent days, some powerful flares (CMEs) have occurred on the surface of the sun. The plasma ejected in large quantities is currently hurtling towards our earth, causing a so-called solar storm, which has been felt by an increasing occurrence of auroras, which were even visible in Germany.
The Earth has been under the influence of a moderate solar storm since Sunday evening, which is expected to last until Tuesday morning, the weather service UBIMET reports on Twitter on Monday. On Monday night, you could even see the Northern Lights on the Baltic Sea (see tweet below).
“Strong (G3) geomagnetic storms are possible Monday and moderate (G2) storms are possible Tuesday, according to a warning from the United States Meteorological and Oceanographic Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.”
Caused radio interference on Earth
A strong CME (coronal mass ejection) already caused radio interference on Earth on Friday. Another followed on Saturday, causing a partial blackout of shortwave radio frequencies over the Pacific.
Solar storms can cripple power grids
However, solar storms can also have dramatic effects on life on Earth. They can cause serious malfunctions in electrical appliances and shut down or destroy entire electricity networks. In addition, radio and mobile telephone networks and GPS can be disrupted by the radiation.
In most cases, solar storms are only observable through the Northern Lights. Last night, as a result of the solar storm, even the nocturnal light spectacle aurora borealis – normally seen almost exclusively in the Arctic – was visible over Germany and central England (see tweets above and below).
Solar storm destroyed Starlink satellites
Satellites in particular suffer from a solar storm because they are not protected by the atmosphere. Recently, a strong solar storm crashed dozens of Starlink satellites owned by Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX.
Source: Krone
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