The Northern Lights have a dark side, NASA scientists warn, as they reveal ground-level damage whenever displays occur

NASA scientists have warned of a hidden dark side to the dazzling aurora borealis.

The visual phenomenon, also called the Aurora Borealis, can cause long-term damage to critical infrastructure at ground level.

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Aurora’s impact on Earth’s power grid and satellites during large geomagnetic storms has long been documented.

But NASA scientists have now revealed that electrical currents associated with geomagnetic storms can damage natural gas pipelines and underwater cables.

Writing in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, NASA scientists warned that Northern Lights are quietly reducing the lifespan of gas pipelines that supply homes with heat and electricity around the world.

Aurora could damage any form of infrastructure that conducts electricity on Earth, according to the new research paper.

While more powerful shocks mean more powerful currents and vivid auroras, frequent, less powerful shocks can also cause damage.

“Geomagnetically induced auroras and currents are caused by similar space weather factors,” explained Dr. Denny Oliveira of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, lead author of the paper.

“The aurora is a visual warning that indicates that electrical currents in space can generate these geomagnetically induced currents on the ground.”

The risk of damage to central infrastructure increases during severe geomagnetic storms.

The most recent severe geomagnetic storm occurred in May 2024, when we saw a drastic increase in Northern Lights sightings in areas that don’t normally see them.

Scientists have dubbed it the most severe storm in the last two decades.

“Arguably, the most intense deleterious effects on the energy infrastructure occurred in March 1989, following a severe geomagnetic storm – the Hydro-Quebec system in Canada was shut down for almost nine hours, leaving millions of people without electricity,” added Oliveira.

“But weaker, more frequent events, such as interplanetary shocks, could pose threats to terrestrial conductors over time.

“Our work shows that considerable geoelectric currents occur quite frequently after shocks and deserve attention.”

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PREDICTING WHEN THEY REACH

Head-on interplanetary shocks produce stronger geomagnetic currents than angular shocks, scientists explained.

The team believes they can predict the angles of these shocks up to two hours before they impact Earth.

This would give power grids a head start in protecting vulnerable infrastructure ahead of the strongest shocks.

One thing that energy infrastructure operators could do to protect their equipment is to manage some specific electrical circuits when a shock alert is issued.

Dr. Denny Oliveira, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

“One thing that energy infrastructure operators could do to protect their equipment is to manage some specific electrical circuits when a shock alert is issued,” continued Oliveira.

“This would prevent geomagnetically induced currents from reducing the life of the equipment.”

The NASA team urged energy companies to make their data accessible for scientists to study.

They said the currently available data is not sufficient.

“The current data was only collected at a specific location, namely the Mäntsälä natural gas pipeline system [in Finland]”, warned Oliveira.

“Although Mäntsälä is in a critical location, it does not provide a global picture.

“Furthermore, the Mäntsälä data is missing several days in the investigated period, which forced us to discard many events in our shock database.

“It would be good if energy companies around the world made their data accessible to scientists for study.”