A Solar Storm that arrived at Earth today means a great show of the Aurora Borealis over the UK this evening.
Researchers from STFC have been tracking the solar storm since it was created in a big eruption on the Sun late on Wednesday afternoon. The eruption sent a large Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) straight towards the Earth as well as producing a bright solar flare. The solar flare caused a minor radio blackout over the UK.
This was detected by STFC’s ionospheric measurements, but these showed only a small event as the Sun was by then low in the sky. We are not aware of any problems caused by this blackout. At the time of writing the CME was still traveling towards Earth and was expected to arrive around midday today.
credit: NASA
Professor Mike Hapgood, Head of the Space Environment Group at STFC’s RAL Space said “Several space-based telescopes show that a CME is heading directly towards Earth, but only at a modest speed so it will take best part of two days to reach us. This speed means we expect only minor problems from space weather, but that we may have a good show of the aurora over the north of the UK. We wait to see if the CME’s magnetic field will allow this, but we won’t know that until it crosses NASA’s ACE spacecraft 25 minutes before it arrives at Earth.”
This event highlights the vital importance of the satellites that allows us to detect CMEs travelling towards the Earth. STFC RAL Space is working with the UK’s Met Office, as well as other partners in the UK, rest of Europe and the USA to develop and promote plans to replace these aging satellites and to equip them with modern instruments that are specifically designed to facilitate space weather forecasting.