A strong solar flare could lead to the northern lights in Germany in the coming days. As announced by the US space agency NASA and the weather agency NOAA, the energy released by the eruption of the volcano on Thursday could also have negative consequences. NASA said the radiation cannot harm people, but “if it is severe enough it can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communication signals are transmitted.”
Also in Central Europe and America, the aurora borealis can be seen unusually, because high-energy particles can make certain atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere glow. To be able to see this phenomenon, the weather also has to play along and at least allow for an occasional view of the sky.
Solar flares are sudden bursts of radiation on our central star, which often throw large amounts of high-energy particles into space. If such a solar storm hits Earth, it could have severe consequences for satellites, communications systems and power supplies.
Thursday’s eruption is ranked in the strongest category “X”, but only with the lowest category “1”. According to NASA, an eruption with a force of X2 is twice as powerful as the explosion that occurred now – only than X10, that is, ten times as powerful, but the space agency talks about an “extraordinarily intense” eruption.
“Alcohol buff. Troublemaker. Introvert. Student. Social media lover. Web ninja. Bacon fan. Reader.”
More Stories
Ecologists Celebrate New Xesap National Park in Laos | Science
Is the wrong diet making you forget?
We can study it with a new telescope.