How are flights to the US and Canada affected by Solar Flare's of this intensity?
Intense solar storm bombarding Earth now
Intense solar storm bombarding Earth now - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - msnbc.com
A strong solar storm is battering the Earth now and could amplify the planet's northern lights displays.
The solar storm is cosmic fallout from a massive solar flare on Thursday that included a powerful eruption on the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection. The eruption sent a wave of charged solar plasma toward Earth, which was expected to arrive sometime between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. EDT (0900 and 1400 GMT), according to forecasts by NASA and the NOAA-run Space Weather Prediction Center.
Space Weather officials said the solar storm could trigger a level G2 geomagnetic storm on Earth, a moderate-level event that could spark auroras at latitudes as low as New York or Idaho, after 9 a.m. EDT. Most northern lights displays, which occur when charged solar particle interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, are confined to high-latitude regions around the polar regions by the planet's magnetic field.
"Weekend auroras are likely," the space weather-tracking website Spaceweather.com wrote in an alert.
This weekend's solar storm originated from one of the most powerful sun flares to occur this year. The flare registered as an X1.4-class sun storm, one of the strongest flares the sun can unleash. It marked the sixth X-class solar flare of 2012.
The solar storm erupted from the giant sunspot AR1520, or Active Region 1520, which is actually a group of sunspots that at its peak may have stretched across 186,000 miles of the sun's surface, NASA scientists have said.
The Space Weather Prediction Center is keeping a close watch on AR1520, as well as several other active spots on the sun, for signs of more activity.