How the Solar Storm is Affecting Earth

(EndPlay Staff Reports) - The biggest solar storm since 2005 peaked on Tuesday, but disruptions could continue a while longer, experts say.

The storm, which caused remarkable displays of light over Canada and Scandinavia, also disrupted satellite communications, the result of streams of radiation from the sun that spread across the Earth's magnetic field.

Prior to the storm, Doug Biesecker, a physicist at the Space Weather Prediction Center , said disruptions were likely. "With the radiation storm in progress now, satellite operators could be experiencing trouble, and there are probably impacts as well to high-frequency (radio) communications in polar regions," reported The Washington Post .

NASA described it as the largest of the current 11-year solar cycle and said it was three times bigger than the previous large flare in February. The storm was moving at almost 1,400 miles per second.

The technical term for a solar flare is coronal mass ejection (CME). They occur where the magnetic fields of the outer solar atmosphere close, causing the confined atmosphere to release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields, suddenly and violently, according to NASA. A large solar flare can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion.

"What's special about this event is the coronal mass ejection that erupted is by far the fastest Earth-directed event of this solar cycle," Biesecker said.