A 12-hour long geomagnetic storm

And it has happened as predicted in my recent article And the Sun wakes up, it has been a 12-hour long geomagnetic storm which produced aurora covering the entire northern hemisphere from Europe to North America as per Fox News update on 4th August. These northern lights were captured  by various cameramen and a slide show can be seen here.

It happens when the space plasma reaches the earth's atmosphere. Radiations cannot make it to the surface of earth except the visible light and infrared. But during Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) from the sun the charged particle travel and reach the upper atmosphere (ionosphere) of earth. These auroral particles produce the light curtains as seen on Tuesday night from different parts of the world, mentioned above.

Scientifically speaking it was not a single eruption from the sun put a series of four continuous emissions and all were earthward. The consequence was such a long geomagnetic storm. The instruments which are used to measure the magnetic field of earth (magnetometers) measure a sort of ECG plot under normal conditions but during such 'storm' since the constituent of earth's atmosphere changes the magnetometers go mad and you can see the spikes and a lot of ups and downs on the plot enhancing the usual value of magnetic field of earth by a large number.

Such storms may be hazardous for the passengers and crew taking polar flights during the storm time. NASA scientists clam that this geomagnetic storm was not a threat to International Space Station (ISS) as it is shielded to prevent the exposure to charged particle from the sun.

The Physics of such storms is undoubtedly complex but for a common person they produce magnificent colorful, spiraling and dancing curtains of light (auroras) as witnessed on Tuesday.

And the Sun wakes up

Yeah, the NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory keeps an 'eye' on the Sun and it has been found on August 1st at 0855 GMT that there was a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) an eruption of charged particle from the northern hemisphere of sun. Such CMEs are usual feature of sun depending upon the place of sun in its 11 year cycle. The sun follows this periodic variation called Solar Cycle in which the spots (sunspots) on its surface change in number. Depending upon the variation in the number of sunspots, the sun erupts particles and extra energy other than the normal solar light and energy.

The CME under discussion is likely to produce Solar Tsunami and it is unique of its kind as it is directed towards earth. The speed of this travelling mass has been estimated as 93 million miles per day, so it would strike the earth on August 4th and we may see the Auroras at north and south poles, mainly the people in Canada and USA can see this lighting produced after the interaction between charged particle and  air molecules in the atmosphere of earth.

Other effects may be the drag of the satellites, disruption of high frequency communication, threat to power lines etc.

The Space Weather Prediction Center mentions this situation as G2 geomagnetic storm, as scaled by NOAA.