The solar flares thought capable of disrupting the earth's communications came and went on Thursday with little more effect than intensifying the picturesque Northern Lights. Solar flares, also known as geomagnetic storming, also materialized on Friday morning, reaching a peak intensity and approaching that which was forecasted.
Solar flares are a naturally-occurring process of all stars, but predicting them is equally as tedious as predicting our own atmosphere's weather patterns. In layman's terms, solar flares are a surge in solar activity, in which charged particles rush into the Earth's atmosphere and create a surge of electric currents, which can compromise communications and other electronics. The most memorable evidence of solar flares' effect in recent memory occurred in 1989, when a surge in solar activity knocked out Quebec's power grid.
While this week's solar flares came and went without consequence, they did serve to remind many of us that our cherished computerized systems can be knocked out by the complex but relatively commonplace event of a solar flare.
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