Finally, a powerful solar flare ejected by our sun on Monday, has started hitting the Earth and caused some pretty shimmering lights in the night skies above North America, and visible as far as the Northern United States and throughout Canada.
Solar flares, basically the sun’s way of sneezing, shoot up some plasma in the solar atmosphere, superheated, this plasma causes some electromagnetic disturbance in space. When aimed towards the Earth, all this interference is intercepted by our magnetic field, and is visible as a red, or green shimmering curtain of lights. It’s otherwise 99.9% ineffective at disrupting anything we use like cell phones, GPS systems or telecommunications satellites.
We’d like to remind everyone that after an important power outage in Canada, during the late 1980s, caused by a similar solar flare, corrections were made to all the modern electrical grids, to help prevent any solar flares from disrupting our grid again.
Of course, since the sky would have to be relatively clear for anyone in my immediate area of Quebec to see, and enjoy any of this spectacle, after a full week of glorious weather, the forecast now calls for rain, clouds and overall crap for the next few days.
