Earlier this month, a rare sighting of the Aurora Borealis was visible in Virginia and across the south. Many people had no idea the aurora was visible until they woke up Saturday morning to a flurry of photos online.
“It’s like fire in the sky, right?” said Scott Bailey, a professor and director of Virginia Tech’s center for space science and engineering research. “Who could not be attracted to go see that?”
Scott Bailey keeps tabs on the sun’s weather patterns, as part of his job as director of Virginia Tech’s center for space science and engineering research. Even he didn’t know the aurora would be visible here until the afternoon of May 10, when he learned scientists had detected a massive solar flare.
“You can think of it as a storm on the sun,” Bailey said. “Or really storms colliding.”
Flares can cause eruptions which shoot particles of high energy out into space. This one was so massive, people in Alabama and Texas reported seeing bright lights in the sky. Bailey said he doesn’t know of an event this large in 20 years.
“An aurora visible in Virginia is a rarity,” Bailey said.
But he says we might be able to see one again. He says the sun goes through 11 year cycles, and we’re approaching the peak of one.
“They tend to be more prevalent after the peak, not before, so the fact that we got something this big, early suggests we might get something coming soon,” Bailey said.
He added that scientists can’t yet predict solar flares, but he believes it’s possible that in time, these types of predictions could be possible.
Two more solar flares were detected on the 14th and 15th. Bailey says these were large, but not as large as the flare on the 10th. Also, the geometry of the earth and sun meant this aurora wasn’t visible from Virginia.
Bailey said the particles that cause the aurora to show in our sky can interfere with some technologies.
“That can affect GPS signals. That can affect communications,” Bailey said.
“And our use of space is growing, rapidly. Astronauts cannot be outside when this kind of thing happens. You gotta get them back, in.”
Bailey said those of us on earth don’t need to worry too much. Our atmosphere generally protects us. But as technology develops in space, our ability to predict the sun’s weather patterns will be of increasing importance.
To learn when solar flares are detected, you can follow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather tracker.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
