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Solar storm may bring Northern Lights to Ireland

Solar storm may bring Northern Lights to Ireland
Northern Lights over Forth Mountain Wexford

A solar storm happening this week could mean that the Northern Lights will be visible in Ireland.

It's expected to disrupt communications and send lights across the sky.

The geomagnetic storm is caused by an outburst of plasma from a solar flare, according to the Irish Independent. 

If you are on a higher ground or in Northern America, it means the Northern Lights may be visible to you.

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"If you have clear skies at night and you are at higher latitudes, this would be a great opportunity to see the skies light up, "Johnathan Lash, a forecaster at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre said.

The storm is also expected to disrupt communications systems like high-frequency radio transmissions.

This is not something the general public needs to worry about.

It will likely affect things like aircraft trying to communicate with distant traffic control towers, but most aircraft use satellite transmission as a back-up.

Why is this happening?

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The sun's magnetic field flips every 11 years meaning that the north and south poles swap positions.

Solar activity changes a lot during that time, with it now nearing its most active. This is called the solar maximum.

During solar minimum, the least active time, many years may pass between storms of this kind.

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