A solar storm is expected to hit Earth on Thursday, which could cause some glitches with electronic equipment and visible aurora borealis as far as the US border.
This type of event occurs after flares that are observed on the surface of the sun.
«[Il y a] puffs of gas, mainly charged particles, protons, electrons, that are projected from the surface of the sun, from the corona surrounding the sun, and it goes through the solar system and if, by chance, the Earth ends up on the trajectory, and well we are, at that time, affected by this flow of abnormally high particles”, explains Robert Lamontagne, coordinator at the Center for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ).
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Solar flares can then cause “a flood of events from the simplest, which are the aurora borealis, going so far as to affect all our electronic equipment such as satellites in orbit around the Earth, telecommunications, weather, GPS or astronauts in the international space station”.
Ground power distribution networks can also be affected by the solar storm.
“Especially those that stretch over long distances, particularly in Quebec where we get our electricity from Baie-James or the Côte-Nord and we bring it back to the South, so these distribution networks which are very extensive and often aligned from North to South, therefore parallel to the Earth’s magnetic field,” says Mr. Lamontagne.
The CRAQ coordinator specifies that the solar storm will be less powerful than initially expected.
“In the case of the one that interests us, so we saw the eruption occur on March 28, and already, we have demoted it to a slightly lower level, so the type of impact that it could have on the Earth, it is especially at the level of the persistence of the aurora borealis”, he says.
If electronic systems should be spared, according to Mr. Lamontagne, the Canadian sky will be the host of a magnificent spectacle.
“For a few days, we should be able to witness the Northern Lights all over Canada […]. It should extend to the south, so to the Canada-United States border, and it could even reach more southern regions such as Pennsylvania, ”he mentions.
It remains to be seen if the weather will be good and the sky will be clear enough to observe the very pretty phenomenon.