Its gonna be a hot one....enjoy 2024, in 2027 youll be getting chemo.
Larger and more frequent solar storms will make for potential disruptions and spectacular auroras on Earth
by Martin Connors , The Conversation
Bright auroras, with dancing lights in the sky, characterize the clear winter nights of northern Canada. Longer nights during the fall and winter also favor seeing more auroras, but the show is best outside of light-polluted cities. Impressive auroral events allowed bright auroras to be seen as far south as the United States recently.
Auroras are produced through the sun's interaction with the Earth's magnetic field. The number of auroras is increasing as the sun's activity becomes stronger, approaching a solar maximum.
Perhaps surprisingly, the same space disturbances that cause auroras can affect our technologies.
In 1859, a geomagnetic storm—the largest in recorded history—disrupted technological systems, such as they were at the time, on Earth. Referred to as the "Carrington Event" after Richard Carrington, the amateur astronomer who made the connection between a bright solar flare and subsequent auroral and magnetic effects.
That sun-Earth link was slow to be accepted, but we now know that the wun can trigger disturbances in near-Earth space, although it seems that events as large as that of 1859 are rare.
Bright auroras, with dancing lights in the sky, characterize the clear winter nights of northern Canada. Longer nights during the fall and winter also favor seeing more auroras, but the show is best outside of light-polluted cities. Impressive auroral events allowed bright auroras to be seen as...
phys.org