Solar Storm Creates Auroras; Not Damage

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published


As of 3 AM EDT NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center showed the estimated planetary K index had dropped to 3 from a high of 6 early Wednesday morning. The Earth was impacted by first of two coronal mass ejections that were the result of a complex eruption on the sun that some news sources called a "solar tsunami." Web site Spaceweather.com has beautiful pictures of bright auroras.

More auroras may appear tonight or tomorrow when the second coronal mass ejection (CME) hits the Earth's magnetosphere.

A previous solar storm has been identified as a possible cause of the malfunctioning of Galaxy 15 in April. So far, I have not seen any reports of damage to satellites from the first CME. Satellite operators have procedures to protect satellites from events such as these.

With luck, the only damage from this "solar tsunami" will be the sleep people miss from staying up late at night to catch a glimpse of the light show or, if they are ham radio operators, from staying up late to take advantage of the unique auroral VHF and UHF propagation modes for contacting distant stations. Use NOAA's Space Weather Now website to see current conditions and the extent of the auroral coverage.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung
Contributor

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.