Lots of Ink: Giant solar storm a news dud. No disasters, nothing else bad. But the aurora was terrific.
Tons of ink the last few days as a big blob of sun stuff, belched into a space from a spectacular solar eruption and flare, a coronal mass ejection of high ranking, came at Earth. Would it bollix communicaiton satellites, induce overloads in transmission lines, make hearing aid batteries explode (ok I made that up), or what?
Nothing much. Here are a few yarns filed after it went on its way toward the heliopause and points interstellar.
- AP – Karl Ritter, Seth Borenstein: Solar storm sparks dazzling northern lights ; With very impressed quotes from a cruise ship’s passengers, one of them perhaps the astronomer-naturalist, off the coast of Norway. More storms, write the AP duo, are surely due, perhaps larger, as solar maximum approaches in the next few months or even a year or two. But this one didn’t damage anything important enough to report.
International Herald Tribune – Harvey Morris: Here comes the sun; - Cape Argus (S.Afr) Sibusiso Nomo, Shaun Smillie: Flare all dazzle and no damage ;
- BBC: Chances of seeing Northern Lights dim / effects are lessening
- Reuters – Kyle Peterson: Solar storm forces Delta, United to divert flights ;
- Fairbanks News Miner – Dorothy Chomicz: Solar storm produces outstanding aurora over Alaska as airlines, telecom companies fret over disruptions ; The paper has two quite striking photos.
- LA Times – Amina Khan: Solar storm sends charged particles toward Earth ; A calm, competent story that ran on the eve of the main ejection cloud arrival, and which predicted little or no damage. The LAT’s Amy Hubbard had an update after it passed.
- McClatchy Newspapers / Boston Herald – Michelle Theriault Boots: Aurora borealis mesmerizes watchers who toughed Alaskan night ;
- Charlie Petit
