Solar Flare

A solar radiation storm prompted by two major solar flares is causing quite the storm on the Internet, but it seems that our electronics and other gadgets are largely safe from magnetic disruptions, for now.

"All told, it's not a terribly strong event," physicist Joe Kunches of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told USA Today.

Still, there might be more to come. The storm is "not done and we may yet get the magnetic field needed to cause higher levels of geomagnetic storming," NOAA said on its Facebook page today.

"The anticipated geomagnetic storm is here, but we haven't seen much as of yet – why is that the case? For the strongest of storming, we generally need the magnetic field in that cloud, the coronal mass ejection (CME), to be opposite that of Earth's own magnetic field," NOAA continued. "So thinking of Earth as a bar magnet, and using the same bar magnet mental picture for that cloud, we get the strongest response when we have the opposite ends or polarities aligned or going in the same direction. When those two bar magnets are facing the same direction, the storming and coupling is not as strong."

In a recent update, NOAA said the solar flares that erupted on March 6 have thus far resulted in magnetic field orientation that is the "opposite of what is needed to cause the strongest storming."

What Is a Solar Flare?
According to NASA, a solar flare is an "intense burst of radiation" after the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. They can last a few minutes or several hours and are visible thanks to the photons, or light, they release.

These solar flares only impact Earth when they occur on the side of the sun facing our planet. Coronal mass ejections (CME), or large clouds of plasma and magnetic field that erupt from the sun, can hit Earth, affecting spacecraft and unprotected astronauts in their path, as well as high frequency radio communication, global positioning systems (GPS), and power grids on Earth.

Two solar flares that occured on March 6 (see video below) did, in fact, occur on an Earth-facing portion of the sun known as AR 1429.

The first, which happened at 7pm Eastern, was categorized as an X5.4 and was the second-largest flare since 2007, when the sun entered a low activity period known as a solar minimum. (A larger one occured on Aug. 9, 2011).

The second solar flare happened about an hour later, at 8:14pm, but it was an X1.3, or five times smaller than the earlier flare.

Together, they created two CMEs, which "sent solar particles into Earth's atmosphere, producing a moderate solar energetic particle event, also called a solar radiation storm," NASA said.

Initially, this storm was rated an S3 on a scale of S1 to S5, which could interfere with high frequency radio communication. By 5:42am Eastern this morning, the leading edge of the CME reached NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite, which is located just outside Earth's magnetic environment, the magnetosphere. "The shock has arrived!" NOAA said at the time.

"As magnetic fields from the CMEs connected up to the magnetosphere, instruments on Earth began to measure changes in our planet's magnetic fields – indicating the onset of a geomagnetic storm," NASA said. "At the time of writing this was still a minor storm, rated a G1 on a scale of G1 to G5."

Another solar flare from March 4, meanwhile, also caused a moderate geomagnetic storm, rated a G2.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
