The Weather Notebook: Solar Storms

Solar Storms
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Dave Thurlow, Host

Coronal Mass Ejection - 18 Aug 1980
Besides the six-o'clock-news weather that we're familiar with, the Earth also has "solar weather." This is the complex interaction of the Earth's magnetic field with the "solar wind," charged particles and electromagnetic radiation streaming from the Sun.

And where does all this solar detritus come from? A cantankerous Sun that spits solar flares and huge bubbles of matter out into space. And the Sun is getting angry again as it does on an 11-year cycle. The stormiest time will be over the next two years.

The end result of these bouts of solar irritation is a very jostled magnetic field here on Earth. During past magnetic storms, the aurora borealis, for example, has been seen as far south as Texas.

But more serious can be power blackouts, as happened during the peak of the last solar cycle. In 1989, six million residents of Quebec woke up one frigid March morning to a perfectly still, dark, unelectrified world. An intense solar storm had shorted out their entire power grid.

Satellites can be fried by solar storms, too, or dragged down in orbit as our atmosphere expands. Pipelines corrode more quickly, and space-station astronauts will have to scamper for protection.

Because our world is more wired than ever, there's more potential for domino effects if systems do fail. So scientists and engineers have been gearing up for the next few years, watching the sun and sending out warnings as fast as they can, building their own sort of "Solar Weather Channel."

Today's contributing writer is David Appell. You can learn more about these solar weather warnings, by visiting our website, which is mountwashington.org. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.