Halloween Solar Flare Could Impact Power Grid, But Also Cause an Eye-Catching Sight
If you’re in the right place this Halloween, you could experience an extra-spooky night sky following a large solar flare that took place this week.
From Oct. 25-26 there were smaller flares and plasma eruptions, but on Oct. 28, an X1.0-class solar flare from an area named AR2887 erupted, causing temporary radio and GPS blackouts.
“An R3 (Strong radio blackout) event took place due to an X1 flare at 1535 UTC (11:35 am EDT) on 28 October from Region 2887,” the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center webpage reported.
“The impulsive flare appeared to have coronal mass ejection (CME) related signatures, however, analysis is ongoing and we are also awaiting updated coronagraph imagery at this time.”
X-class flares are the most intense, with X10 and above being classified as “unusually intense,” according to NASA. These large flares can interfere with satellite communication signals, affect power grids on Earth and threaten astronauts in space.
Weaker solar flares such as the one this week are responsible for auroras like the northern lights, according to an article in the New York Post. “Those natural light displays are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by solar wind, which creates the bright green and blue displays.”
Experts have determined that the charged particles from the eruption on Thursday should hit Earth’s atmosphere sometime this weekend, causing a boost in the northern lights — potentially on Halloween.
Even people in New York, Idaho, Illinois, Oregon, Maryland and Nevada who don’t normally get to see the beautiful lights may get the opportunity to see them this weekend, though they likely won’t be dramatic and will be difficult to see in light-polluted areas.
NASA’s associate director for science at the Heliophysics Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, C. Alex Young, wrote in an email that the northern lights could be especially spectacular this weekend.
“This could be a great show for people in the mid-to-upper U.S. latitudes for aurora,” he wrote, according to Space.com. “Especially those in Canada, [Upper Peninsula of Michigan], Alaska, Iceland, Norway, Scotland, etc.”
Young confirmed that the flare did cause a brief blackout for high-frequency radio and GPS that use low-frequency signals. He also said that it shouldn’t cause any problems for the International Space Station, which is good, considering four astronauts will be headed to the station on Halloween.
Dr. Tamitha Skov also tweeted about the event, highlighting the possibility of an extra-exciting Oct. 31.
“A Direct Hit for #Halloween!” she wrote. “The #solarstorm launched during the X-flare today is indeed Earth-directed! NASA predictions confirm impact by early October 31. Expect #aurora to mid-latitudes, as well as #GPS reception issues and #amateur radio disruptions on Earth’s nightside!”
A Direct Hit for #Halloween! The #solarstorm launched during the X-flare today is indeed Earth-directed! NASA predictions confirm impact by early October 31. Expect #aurora to mid-latitudes, as well as #GPS reception issues and #amateur radio disruptions on Earth’s nightside! pic.twitter.com/Jjk3eixWIq
— Dr. Tamitha Skov (@TamithaSkov) October 28, 2021
According to Space.com, this was the “second most powerful eruption from the sun this year.”
There were also storms in 2003 on Halloween that NASA once called “the scariest.” That year, there were 17 major flares whose coronal mass ejections sent charged particles hurtling towards earth, causing complications from Oct. 19 to Nov. 7, 2003.
“The effects of these storms were ghoulish enough that [aircraft controllers] had to re-route aircraft, it affected satellite systems and communications, and it also caused a power outage in Sweden for about an hour,” said Dr. Holly Gilbert, a Goddard Space Flight Center solar scientist, according to NASA.
“The aurora are normally limited to the higher latitudes, and these storms were so powerful they created aurora that could be seen as far south as Florida.”
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