Tuesday night there is going to be what is called a solar tsunami. The solar flare was a huge explosion on the surface of the sun that sent a wave of ionized particles directly toward us. Across the surface of the sun, there is a huge solar flare rippling which is what makes a solar tsunami. Satellites might get damaged during this solar flare. Of course, this means northern lights can be seen very well.
Solar tsunami happens
The solar flare erupted Sunday morning. Earth’s magnetic field caught some of the ionized atoms which were created by the tsunami and headed towards earth. The solar flame might hit tonight making for a rare northern lights display and geomagnetic storm, reports Fox News. The space weather could cause solar flare satellite damage, though scientists think that possibility is remote.
STEREO records tsunami
The existence of solar flares to create a solar tsunami were confirmed by STEREO, or NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The sun is observed by the STEREO spacecrafts, reports Wired. They both center on Earth’s orbit. The sun seems 3 dimensional because of the way they’re positioned. In February 2009 STEREO confirmed the solar tsunami was not the shadow of a solar flare, but a 60,000-mile-high wave of super-hot plasma and magnetism blazing across the sun’s surface at 560,000 mph (see video below).
Rare solar flare on Sunday
The second video below shows an very rare solar flare from the sun. The Telegraph reports that two almost simultaneous solar flares from different locations on the sun were launched toward the Earth. The first eruption was a very large one that ended up screwing up the Sun’s magnetic atmosphere making conditions for the second eruption very good, Dr Lucie Green told the Telegraph. The only thing Earth will see from this is a geomagnetic storm along with some quite amazing northern lights.
Seeing the northern lights show
When the solar flares hit the Earth Tuesday, charged particles from the sun will hit the oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth’s upper atmosphere to produce the northern lights. GMTV reports the charged particles excite the gas atoms into emitting small bursts of energy within the form of light. The kind of gas is what determines the color. There will be colors like greenish-yellow, red, or blue depending on whether Oxygen or nitrogen is getting excited. Also seen often is purple, white and pink within these other colors.
Fox News
foxnews.com/scitech/2010/08/03/spectacular-northern-lights-signals-sun-waking/
Wired
wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/solar-tsunami/
The Telegraph
telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7923069/Nasa-scientists-braced-for-solar-tsunami-to-hit-earth.html
YouTube
youtube.com/watch?v=bMgBt-UuUak and amp;feature=related
YouTube
youtube.com/watch?v=rnqubAGgx2k and amp;feature=related
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