This week may be your best chance to see the Northern Lights shimmer in the Florida sky

 

 

This week may be your best chance to see the Northern Lights shimmer in the Florida sky. Solar Flares are headed our way! For those who do not know Solar flares are bursts of high-energy radiation. Big ones are often accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which send clouds of superheated solar plasma streaking through space at millions of miles per hour. The cloud of material will cause disruptions in the Earth's magnetosphere. This can --and already has -- disrupt radio and satellite communications, as well as navigational equipment. It can also cause damage to satellites and result in power surges that damage power lines and cause power outages.  That doesn't, however, mean the radiation is anything to be directly afraid of: although the incoming storms are classified "moderate" and "strong", the Earth's atmospheric layer, strengthened by the period of solar maximum, protects the planet from the blasts of solar radiation. So head outside tonight and maybe we will get lucky enough to see the Northern Lights in Florida!!!