2012 Solar flare disrupts flight communication — and lights up night sky
by David B. Nelson
Jan 25, 2012
While 2012 prophets may interpret Sunday’s [January 22, 2012] massive solar flare activity as a sign of doomsday, scientists say not to worry, especially if you are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the northern lights.
But airlines are still urged to exercise caution.
The flare was classified as a M8.7 Coronal Mass Ejection, a moderate event despite being called the biggest and strongest activity since 2005. The CME brought along a rare proton event as well, beaming high-energy protons to Earth. The sub-atomic burst can create a brighter aurora light show in northern portions of the planet.
But Sunday’s flare has caused a flurry of geomagnetic storms, as well, impacting communications and polar airline routes.
“The one big thing that the CMEs affect is radio communication and in this case, causing a breakdown at the poles right now,” said NASA astrophysicist Phillip Chamberlin. That’s true even for moderate events such as the current one.
Most of us might be thinking, well I’m not heading to the North Pole in winter anytime soon. But think again.
Polar routes for airline carriers have become the new trend in commercial aviation and, if you’re headed to Asia sometime soon, it’s possible you might be giving Santa Claus a fly-by.
“These flights are increasing more and more for business travel,” said Chamberlin. “Flying west to [Asia], you’re going against trade winds, but it’s a lot quicker to go north and you use a lot less fuel. But the CMEs have deposited a lot of energy at the poles, causing auroras and wiping out radio communication in those areas.”
Polar flights became popular after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Cold War tensions over air space disappeared. United Airlines began its first polar flight routes in 2000. But despite the new magnetic activity disrupting communication (it’s against FAA regulations to fly without radio capability), the Chicago-based airline insisted it had had minimal to no problems.
“We are monitoring the situation,” said United Airlines representative Mike Trevino, “and we did have to reroute one polar flight yesterday, but we don’t expect any further cancellations or reroutings.”
Don’t expect the recent solar activity to wind down either. Our sun is currently headed into a period known as solar maximum, an event which occurs on an average of every 11 years and could create more problems.
“It depends on what directions the CMEs are going,” said NASA media representative Susan Hendrix. “In a worst case scenario, you could have some regional blackouts from power grids being overtaxed, or more radio blackouts, but it’s sporadic and very difficult to predict.”
“We’re likely to see more events like this,” said Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. “But it’s not dangerous. It’s not even dangerous for the astronauts up in the international space station.”
While airline disruption could be expected in the next year, the solar maximum activity could create an excellent opportunity for stargazers after charged particles collide with particles in the atmosphere, releasing visible energy in the form of aurorae.
“The stronger the activity, the further south it pushes,” Hammergren said. “Any time there is this much activity, it’s worthwhile to check out what’s going on in the night sky.”
Although there is no way to predict the probability for aurorae sightings, Hammegren says it wouldn’t be out of the question to look to the skies this evening with a little bit of expectation.
“There’s no reason to be worried,” Hammergren said of the solar activity, “we should be joyful at the opportunities we might have to see what happens in the sky.”
