site.btaSolar Flare Causes Aurora in Sky over Bulgaria

The skies over Bulgaria were lit up in red on Sunday. Physicist Pencho Markishki of the Institute of Astronomy at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences told BTA that such a phenomenon can only be observed after a powerful coronal ejection of mass from the Sun towards Earth.

Markishki said: "Once the stream of charged particles travels the distance between the Sun and the Earth, it bombards the Earth's magnetosphere and even bends it on its dayside. A geomagnetic storm is generated, which can cause interference in radio communications".

Solar plasma particles entering the high layers of the Earth's atmosphere cause auroras. On rare occasions when the process is very intense, auroras can be observed from lower latitudes, the physicist said.

Geomagnetic storms can cause problems with radio communications, breakdowns in power systems and in cable telecommunications networks. The reason is that extra voltage is induced in the wires of power transmission networks, which can knock out important equipment. The greater the total length of power lines in a country's energy ring, the more damaging the impact from the storm would be.

Markishki recalled that in 1859 a magnetic storm knocked out telegraph lines in the United States and Europe. Also in 1972, a magnetic storm knocked out telephone lines in the US state of Illinois. In 1989, six million people in the Canadian province of Quebec were left without heating and lighting after a power outage, again in a powerful magnetic storm.

Markishki recalled that a magnetic storm knocked out telegraph lines in the United States and Europe in 1859. Another storm knocked out telephone lines in Illinois in 1972. In 1989, six million people in the Canadian province of Quebec were left without heating and lighting after a power outage, again due to a powerful magnetic storm.

While modern electronics and communications are becoming more sophisticated and more efficient, they are also becoming more vulnerable, and humanity now relies on them for literally everything, the expert noted and added that this is why predicting such events is important.