Huge solar storm could cause tech glitches, light up night sky

One of the strongest solar storms in years engulfed Earth early Thursday, but scientists say the planet may have lucked out as no major issues have been reported, and better yet, the storm may bring some beautiful sights for Seattleites.

Hours after the peak of the storm Thursday, officials said there were no reports of problems with power grids, GPS, satellites, or other technologies that are often disrupted by solar storms.

“We all hope for minimal interruptions, so far we’ve been through the peak period with no real big problems reported,” said CBS’ Peter King in an appearance on 97.3 KIRO FM Seattle’s Morning News.

But that still can change as the storm shakes the planet’s magnetic field in ways that could disrupt technology but also spread colorful Northern Lights.
Early indications show that it is about 10 times stronger than the normal solar wind that hits Earth.

“You’ve got these solar particles that are hurtling into the atmosphere and interacting with all these electronic goods that we now have that we didn’t have even 5, 10 years ago,” said King.

King said with all the new technologies there is sort of a “big unknown here.”

“There is a whole lot of stuff that we didn’t have years ago and we don’t know how it’s going to affect it. We didn’t have iPhones 10 years ago, iPads five years ago, and all of those depend on wireless satellite communications.”

The storm started with a massive solar flare Tuesday evening and grew as it raced outward from the sun, expanding like a giant soap bubble, scientists said. The charged particles were expected to hit at 4 million mph.

The storm struck in a direction that causes the least amount of problems, said Joe Kunches, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

“It’s not a terribly strong event. It’s a very interesting event,” he said.

Forecasters can predict the speed a solar storm travels and its strength, but the north-south orientation is the wild card. And this time, Earth got dealt a good card with a northern orientation, which is “pretty benign,” Kunches said. If it had been southern, that would have caused the most damaging technological disruption and biggest auroras.

“We’re not out of the woods,” Kunches said Thursday morning. “It was a good start. If I’m a power grid, I’m really happy so far.”

But that storm orientation can and is changing, he said.
“It could flip-flop and we could end up with the strength of the storm still to come,” Kunches said.

North American utilities so far have not reported any problems, said Kimberly Mielcarek, spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a consortium of electricity grid operators.

A massive cloud of charged particles can disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas. But the same blast can also paint colorful auroras farther from the poles than normal.

For North America, the good part of a solar storm, the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights, peaks Thursday evening.

“I think you’re going to get a really nice display there tonight if you’ve got clear enough skies to be able to see it,” said King.

Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.

The storm is part of the sun’s normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach a peak next year. Solar storms don’t harm people, but they do disrupt technology. And during the last peak around 2002, experts learned that GPS was vulnerable to solar outbursts.

Because new technology has flourished since then, scientists could discover that some new systems are also at risk, said Jeffrey Hughes, director of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling at Boston University.

Still, the potential for problems is widespread. Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. This is an unusual situation, when all three types of solar storm disruptions are likely to be strong, Kunches said.

In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.
Solar storms can bring additional radiation around the north and south poles, a risk that sometimes forces airlines to reroute flights.

But King said don’t expect any planes to fall out of the sky.

Satellites can be affected, too. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the space agency wasn’t taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the International Space Station from added radiation.

King said reports Thursday morning indicate they are all fine so far.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
The Associated Press contributed to this report.