It struck the earth earlier than expected, striking our magnetic field earlier on this St. Patrick's day. Experts first thought it was a weak storm (G1-class (Kp=5) geomagnetic storm} but then they quickly realized it was much stronger.
It has now been upgraded to the strongest category (G4-class (Kp=8)), making it the strongest storm of the present solar cycle.
The geomagnetic storm sparked auroras over the Northern States like Washington, Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The picture attached was provided by spaceweather.com and is courtesy of Marketa Murray. It shows the Northern lights as seen from Alaska. What a beautiful sight as the foreground shows pine trees all covered with snow.
This Solar incident should continue for a few more hours as the earth passes through the Solar Flare. This may cause satellite outages and cellular phone call interruptions.
If we get more, we'll pass it on.
Will it come over broward county?
ReplyDeleteA solar flare impacts the entire planet, however we have a magnetic field in the atmosphere that protects us as a shield. All that energy is sent to the poles where it gives off a huge light display. That display is in the form of auroras or the Northern lights. For us we will just deal with the pesky satellite outage or dropped phone call.
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