Solar Displays

On Wednesday morning a big display of Northern lights (Auroras) was seen in areas near the North Pole especially in Alaska. The following information is provided courtesy spaceweather.com. This display was due to a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME for short, which is simply a huge burp of energy coming out of the sun.  The picture shows an aurora as seen from Fairbanks, Alaska, it was snapped by Marketta Murray.

It was reported the CME arrived by midnight Alaska time, with the display going for hours.

NASA suggests more CMEs are expected in the near future. These displays will be due to a hole opening in the sun's atmosphere.

These are called "Coronal Holes" and they will spew out a stream of Solar Wind. The wind will aim for us.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the Coronal Hole on Nov. 9th:

These holes are areas where the sun's magnetic field opens up and lets loose a very strong stream of energy.

This stream lets "Plasma", or ionized gas that's typically trapped by the sun's magnetic field, to burst out and fly away from the sun.

Part of this stream of Plasma is on its way here and should arrive between the 11th & 12th of November.

This CME should spark more auroras in our atmosphere.

This picture shows where the Coronal Hole can be found acting as a door letting Plasma loose.

These CMEs can cause some cell phone and satellite disruptions. Very strong ones may cause power outages.

Most of these displays will be seen near the Arctic Circle.

Stay tuned.