Solar flares expected to hit Earth, could cause tech disruptions
Scientists from around the world are expecting the arrival of three coronal mass ejections from the sun on either late Thursday or early Friday, which they said are part of the waves of charged solar particles that were flared directly towards Earth last week.
Once the flares reach Earth, their impact with the planet's magnetic shield would spawn the so-called northern lights or Aurora Borealis and could cause widespread disruptions, depending on their magnitude, on technology infrastructures such as telecommunications and power grids.
Alan Thomson of the British Geological Survey (BGS) told BBC news that they are anticipating to appreciate the flares' effects by late Thursday or early Friday though he stressed that most scientists view the coronal ejections as "not as intense as we first thought it might be but could be a large enough event for us to see the northern lights in the UK."
If such is the case, the view of the northern lights may be blurred by the thick presence of clouds, basing on the latest weather forecast released for the regions surrounding the United Kingdom.
According to the statement issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Friday, the three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were caused by solar flares that occurred from February 13 to 15 (GMT).
NOAA added that the flare that was emitted on February 15 appeared to be the fastest while NASA has reported that the last flare was also the strongest recorded in the past four years and exploded from sunspot 1158. All the other flares also originated from the same spot, which has been expanding lately, according to NASA.
As early as Thursday in China, reports of interference on that country's telecommunication system has been reported by media.
The last time that a massive solar flare has affected Earths' infrastructure was in 1989 when a solar explosion destroyed the power grid of Quebec, Canada that left some six million people without power for some time. Also, in 1972, a solar storm led to a solar flare that damaged the telecommunication facilities of Illinois.