Thanksgiving solar flares trigger space weather storm and increased aurora Fri. Untitled Document A series of major solar flares occurred beginning on Thanksgiving evening and, after a 3-day trip to Earth, are expected to trigger aurora borealis , or northern lights, as far south as Illinois and Oregon. Cams Sun Aurora Forecasters say the burst of activity was unlike anything seen in a decade. Colo. As a result, a geomagnetic storm is expected to reach Earth Saturday evening, November 25, or Sunday. Forecasters expect perhaps as many as four shock waves to arrive in a 24-hour period this weekend.
Solar activity is likely to continue at moderate to high levels for the next several days.
For slide shows of solar weather and aurora, visit our photo galleries Geomagnetic storms travel at a rate of 1-3 million miles per hour. Strong ones like these can cause satellites to experience surface charging and orientation problems and power systems can also be affected. Such storms can also interfere with high frequency radio communications. The initial solar flares already caused radio blackouts on the sunlit side of the Earth for about an hour. While there have been other strong solar flares during the current peak in the 11-year solar cycle , the Thanksgiving flares were rare in that there was so many in such a short period of time.