A rare space storm brings aurora borealis to central Europe

In progress is currently an unusually powerful space storm, says the Finnish Meteorological Institute in its press release. As a result, the northern lights have been seen as far as Central Europe, even as far as the Alps.

On Sunday, the sun had a strong flare, i.e. a flare of electromagnetic radiation in the X-ray region. In connection with that, a mass corona discharge, i.e. a gas cloud thrown into space, started from the Sun towards the Earth.

The mass ejection was very fast: it reached Earth in just 26 hours. Its average speed was 1,500 kilometers per second.

Space Weather Scientist Ilja Honkonen In a press release, the Finnish Meteorological Institute describes the space storm as exceptional.

“Measured by proton flux, it is the most powerful particle storm since 1991 and also the most powerful by classification since 2003.”

Geomagnetic the most visible effect of the storm, or the more familiar space storm, is the aurora borealis that blazes in more southerly regions than usual. Seeing the northern lights in the stomach, however, requires sufficiently cloudless weather.

In Finland, Cloudiness can prevent the northern lights from being seen in a large part of the country. Cloudiness will be strong on Tuesday evening and the night before Wednesday.

Local cracking of the cloud cover is possible mainly in the eastern part of the country and northern Lapland.

Northern lights in addition, space storms can cause, among other things, disturbances in satellite positioning.

“Based on the measurements, it seems that the radiation effect of the ongoing storm has not reached flight altitudes,” says Honkonen in the announcement.

An ordinary citizen usually does not notice these disturbances in everyday life, but professionals need to be prepared for them.