Solar storm in the Netherlands: ‘It can be socially disruptive, but not tonight’

“The sun, our closest star,” Brentjes explains, “is quite a distance away from us. We always think that space is empty, but it is not nearly as empty as we think. There is a continuous wind of particles that comes from the sun to the earth. When we talk about a solar storm, there is something going on with that wind; it is extra fast or extra dense. Then it influences the earth’s magnetic field, for example.”

A solar storm like the one that will pass over the Earth tonight therefore consists of a stream of charged particles. These particles are guided to the north or south pole. “Maybe that’s why we see the Northern Lights,” says Brentjes. “But,” he continues, “there are absolutely no doomsday scenarios. Today we are talking about a storm in class G1 or G2, on a class of 5. Then there are small effects.”

Storms

According to him, ‘storms’ like this now occur almost every week. “The sun is now very active: sometimes it is quiet on the sun for a few years and sometimes it is busy. Now it is such a busy period.” But how do we know that such a ‘storm’ is coming? “Of course we have no weather stations between the sun and the earth,” says Brentjes, laughing. “We see a hole in the atmosphere on the sun, from which a very fast stream of particles is coming to Earth. We have been seeing that for a few days and it is expected that those particles would arrive today. The intensity of the type of storm that we have today, it’s not that bad.”

Still, a storm of the strongest category “could occur at any time during solar maximum.” “Almost every maximum of the sun has such a storm,” says Brentjes. The failure of power networks and satellites going out of orbit is the upside. “The bottom of the G5 class happens a few times every period. There are certain large energy or space companies that have to prepare for this. The extreme category with a power outage; that happens once every 50 to 200 years. It can certainly happen, but not tonight,” he concludes with a wink.