Delta Flights to Asia Back On Track As Solar Radiation Storms Wane

Delta Airlines is flying its normal routes to Asia Wednesday after changing the route earlier this week following a sun storm on Sunday.

Anthony Black, spokesperson for Delta Airlines, said Delta based its decision on information from the scientific community that led it to believe there would no longer be radio problems at the North Pole.

Sunday's storm blasted photons and two classes of particles toward the earth at varying speeds. “It’s like a one-two-three hit,” said Phillip Chamberlin, NASA Goddard deputy project scientist for the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The result was brilliant auroras and disrupted radio signals — the latter presenting a problem to flights dependent on ground-to-air radio transmissions.

One of the earthbound particle groups, the slowest and last to hit, was a coronal mass ejection (CME). It was the main culprit behind the radio communication blackouts that affected flights to Asia, according to Chamberlin.

Airlines flying at latitudes below 82 degrees can use satellite phones when they can't get a radio signal, according to Rodney Viereck, a scientist with the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center. But when radio signals are disrupted above 82 degrees latitude, satellite phones aren't an option and flights are impacted.

Delta had been rerouting transpolar flights since Monday, according to Black. And Air Canada shifted the paths of some flights to Asia on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News.

Calls to Air Canada on Tuesday evening and United Airlines on Wednesday morning were not returned.

On Wednesday, the Space Weather Prediction Center’s website predicted that small effects on high frequency radio would continue in the polar regions until around noon Thursday — and could affect navigation at polar cap locations. But it also stated that radiation levels had recovered to a moderate level.

CME may have hit last, but it’s the largest group of particles, Chamberlain explained. And as long as its affects endure, radio signals at the poles will be subject to disruption.

This CME is playing with the earth’s magnetic field, Chamberlin reported, energizing other particles — “giving them a kick,” a kick to the north and south poles that is.

Greenbelters and people in the Washington, D.C. area will not be able to see Wednesday night's aurora. But other sky watchers can take advantage of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center’s OVATION Auroral Forecast — it shows the locations where viewers on the ground can see the aurora, assuming good viewing conditions.