WASHINGTON, D.C. — This year, stargazers from Norway to Massachusetts got a chance to see the beautiful northern lights.
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But way above us, the sun was actually causing those light shows.
“Right now, we’re in the grips of solar maximum,” said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Dahl works at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado. He’s part of team tracking the sun as it goes through an 11-year cycle of high and low solar storm activity.
During this period of solar maximum, Dahl said there’s more intense space weather like coronal mass ejections, known as CME’s and solar flares.
“They’re these blasts of electromagnetic energy that cover up much of the spectrum that we measure,” said Dahl. “Then there’s particles that can come from the sun, energetic particles that can arrive here, not quite at the speed of light like a solar flare energy does, but they can get here as fast as 15 to 20 minutes, or it can be some number of hours.”
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These space weather events are ranked one through five based on potential intensity and they can cause major disruptions here on Earth.
“That impacts anything from the electric power grid to the aviation industry to GPS accuracy to satellite comms and more,” said Dahl.
The federal government has invested heavily in space weather research over the last 15 years. But forecasters warn we’re overdue for a massive space weather event which hasn’t happened since 1859!
“That we think is going to be devastating to our power transmission systems today, not just in this country, but globally around the world. It could be quite impactful,” said Dahl.
While the timing of this super solar storm is still unclear, Dahl expects the next two years could be a roller coaster of solar activity. He says the Space Weather Prediction Center relies on sensors in space to map out those storms.
“But we don’t know anything about it at all until it arrives one million miles from Earth at one of our satellites out there,” said Dahl. “So, by then it’s 10 minutes, could be as quick as 10 minutes to reach Earth at that point.”
That’s why this center works directly with power companies across all of North America. There’s also lots of communication between forecasters and air traffic control, NASA and other government agencies.
Ahead of an intense CME in May, Dahl said this team set up a hotline call with power grid officials. This preparation gave power crews six hours of notice before that space weather event.
“So when the storm progressed over Earth and their temperature alarms were going off on these transformers…they were able to shift over to these other devices to help absorb some of that electrical current. So people were not at a loss with a bulk, you know, blackout or transmission failure,” he said.
Key preparations that allowed millions to enjoy these beautiful northern lights with limited disruptions.
“The country just did not notice a lot of them, except for GPS problems with farmers, because they were taking actions, we were talking, we were communicating, giving [power grid] the information, they were ready for that,” said Dahl.
NOAA is predicting a space weather event between November 28-29. When the storm hits, an aurora may be visible over Midwest from New York to Idaho.
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