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The beautiful auroras witnessed across multiple countries were the result of solar flares, which caused geomagnetic storms and reportedly caused some electronic disruptions.
Late-night stargazers across Ireland witnessed a unique sight over the weekend, as the sky lit up with the colours and patterns of the Northern Lights.
This natural phenomenon – also known as Aurora Borealis – occurs when gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere collide with charged particles from the sun. The resulting collision leads to the array of dazzling colours in the sky.
Usually only witnessed in Arctic regions, this weekend the Northern Lights – and its southern counterpart called Aurora Australis – were visible in many countries around the world over the weekend.
The incredible display was caused by an increase in massive solar flares – events that cause waves of charged particles to shoot out from the sun and eventually collide with Earth. These particles are usually deflected away by the Earth’s atmosphere, but when they arrive in larger quantities they can cause significant issues for electronic devices around the world.
Last week, the solar storm was predicted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which detected a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections – massive bursts of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. NOAA warned that these events can cause “geomagnetic storms” when they are directed at Earth.
“Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations,” NOAA said. “Geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth.”
While the event allowed many people to witness beautiful displays above their homes, the storm also caused some disruptions. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company’s Starlink service was impacted as a result of the geomagnetic storms and that the satellites were under a lot of pressure.
Meanwhile, there were reports that the solar storms knocked out the GPS systems on tractors in the US, impacting farmers during planting season.
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