by The most powerful solar storm for nearly 20 years is expected to hit Earth on Friday night, with the Northern Lights possibly visible across the whole of the UK.
A burst of charged particles from a series of powerful eruptions from the Sun’s surface is heading straight for Earth at about 900 km/s, more than twice as fast as normal.
Space weather experts expect the gusty wind to collide with our planet’s magnetic field at around 2am on Saturday morning UK time, and this could trigger strong auroras at latitudes further south than usual.
Professor Mathew Owens, Professor of Space Physics at the University of Reading, told the Telegraph: “In the last 48 hours we’ve seen a whole series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun, and they seem to be headed straight for us. .
“The scale of this activity is high, but not particularly unusual for the maximum phase of the Sun’s 11-year cycle. But it turns out that Earth is in the firing line this time.
“Our forecast shows six or seven eruptions piling up on the way from the Sun to Earth. The space is now a mess. They will probably arrive soon.”
‘Possibility of some northern lights splitting’
The weather is expected to be clear across much of the UK and those in northern England and Scotland are likely to see the Northern Lights, he said.
“All the activity we’re seeing is linked to a very large sunspot on our Sun called AR3664. This is a region of high activity on the sun with relatively strong magnetic fields,” said Dr Daniel Brown, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Nottingham Trent University.
“It’s very big, so big that if you use eclipse glasses you can see it with the naked eye. The CMEs will have the potential to crack some northern lights this weekend.”
The Met Office’s Space Weather Operations Center said the overnight clear spells could lead to increased visibility for people in the UK, with a chance of seeing them in southern England.
Krista Hammond, the Met Office’s space weather manager, said: “If the conditions are right there’s a good chance of seeing it on Friday night. Aurora visibility may continue throughout Saturday night, but as it stands this is likely to be less widespread than on Friday night and northern parts of the UK are still likely to have the best viewing potential.”
Space weather is monitored by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and this weekend’s bout of space weather is classified as a “severe” G4 event, the second highest classification.
The storm has a KP index of eight and this category of geomagnetic storms could lead to “potential widespread voltage control problems” and disruption of the magnetic field.
Storm level not seen since 2005
Dr Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said there have been a pair of “X-class flares in the last two days” that have raised the solar storm from G2 to G4 grade.
NOAA’s website says this storm level, last seen in 2005, could cause high-frequency radio interference, sometimes degraded satellite navigation, and aurora as low as 45° latitude, reaching as far south as the Black Sea, the Japan, and France.
“It is very difficult to predict the arrival of a CME. But the impact is even harder to predict – the strength of the aurora, effects on the power grid, etc,” said Professor Owens.
“That’s because it all depends on the strength and direction of the magnetic field within the CMEs, and we basically have no information about that until the CMEs get spacecraft close to Earth.”
Technology in space and on Earth can have an impact
Dr Maria Walach, an astrophysicist working as part of the AuroraWatch UK team at Lancaster University, told the Telegraph that there could be an aurora across the UK after jets of particles from the Sun around 3am on Friday night .
“It will be visible in the UK if it’s cloud free, especially in the north,” she said.
“Because this CME carries very fast solar wind speeds – estimated to be around 900 km/s, which is much faster than the average 400 km/s – we are likely to enter a geomagnetic storm that could last one day. or two, so there is a chance that an aurora will be visible again on Sunday night.
“It looks like it could be a bigger CME than the recent ones. Large bouts of space weather activity, such as geomagnetic storms, have the potential to affect technology in space and on Earth.
“This can happen in many complex ways, depending on the technology you’re looking at.
“Space weather could affect rail signals and other technology, but there is no need to panic as the UK Met Office is always looking at the risks and contacting infrastructure providers as necessary need
“Space Weather is on the UK government’s risk register and is therefore being monitored, so that action can be taken when necessary.”
The Met Office does not expect any disruption to infrastructure in the UK.
