TORONTO – If the skies are clear the next few nights, Canadians might get a light show.
On July 16, the sun unleashed an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME). A coronal mass ejection, a release of plasma and particles, can eject a billion tons of matter and travel at several million kilometres per hour. This CME should reach Earth on July 18.
When they reach Earth, the particles get trapped in our magnetic field, resulting in Northern Lights. Typically Northern Lights, or aurorae, are visible closer to Earth’s poles. As Canadians, we are in a prime viewing location.
An Earth-directed CME can cause a geomagnetic storm, which funnels energy into our planet’s magnetosphere for a few days. Aside from producing the Northern Lights, CMEs can also disrupt communication signals and cause electrical surges in power grids. In 1989, an Earth-directed CME caused a blackout in Quebec for several days.
NASA said that typically, geomagnetic storms of this magnitude have been mild.
NASA has determined that this CME left the sun at 900 km/s. It may also pass by the MESSENGER spacecraft orbited Mercury as well as the Juno spacecraft that is on its way to Jupiter. NASA operators may put the spacecraft into safe-mode to protect their instruments.
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