Solar storm activates aurora borealis, lighting up Alberta skies

The beauty and after-effects of the Aurora Borealis are explained by an Edmonton science centre. CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson reports.

If you were out Tuesday night and it was dark enough, you may have seen quite the light show as the aurora borealis turned the night sky shades of red and green.

Frank Florian, the senior manager of the planetarium and space sciences at the Telus World of Science Edmonton, said the ribbons of colour were essentially caused by the sun “burping.”

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“A few days back, it actually burped,” Florian told CTV News Edmonton. “It’s called a coronal mass ejection. It basically blows up other particles of the sun, and that stuff streams away from the sun.

“Eventually it hits the Earth’s magnetic field, it gets trapped and then gets thrown towards the north and south magnetic poles, giving us those beautiful lights.”

He said the sun undergoes a change of activity in an 11-year cycle, which we are just coming off the peak of.

“This means the sun is very energetic. There’s a lot of prominences, sun spots on the sun trapping energy, releasing energy, and these huge coronal mass ejections,” said Florian.

Unfortunately, due to the solar cycle, the aurora borealis will occur less in the coming years.

“In about six years’ time, you may not see much of anything, maybe a few nights here and there, but not as much as we see right now,” he said.

Florian adds that there was exceptional activity and energy Tuesday night, allowing the human eye to pick up deep reds that are not normally picked up.

“For a lot of aurora displays, there is probably some red associated with it, it’s just that the human eye is not able to see them because the light level is just too low,” he said. “It was just the sheer volume, the energy that was absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere that gave us that red.”

This is why you may have gotten an impressive photo on your phone, but not as great of an in-person experience.

Humans also typically see a lot of green in northern lights because it travels lower into the atmosphere due to molecular nitrogen.

Most of Canada would have seen glimpses of the light show Tuesday, as well as many other parts of the world due to the surge of solar activity.

While the aurora borealis is a rare, and for some, coveted sight, there are some cons to a surge in solar activity.

Florain said power generating systems are susceptible to issues during a solar storm which can cause transformers to blow.

He recalled a solar event in the late 1980s that blew out a generator for Quebec Hydro, costing billions to repair. Even cell phone transmission can be impacted.

EPCOR said it increases monitoring when geomagnetic activity is detected.

“While the solar storm that began Nov. 10 did not cause any issues, these events can sometimes affect equipment, such as transformers, or cause voltage fluctuations,” said a statement from EPCOR.

NAV Canada, which operates the country’s civil air navigation system, said its systems, such as GPS, are designed to mitigate the effects of geomagnetic activity.

While solar activity might be harmful to electronics, Florian said it’s perfectly fine for humans to go out and enjoy the show.

“Go out there. Do look up,” he said. “Unless you’re a conductor, like a big wire, don’t worry about it. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

If you didn’t get the opportunity to see the aurora borealis display Tuesday, you might get another chance Wednesday night. The best way to view them is away from as much light pollution as possible.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson