Big Solar Storm Hits Earth

By ROBERT LEE HOTZ and DOUG CAMERON

The largest solar storm in almost a decade swept across Earth on Tuesday, affecting air traffic across the North Pole and radio communications, in a harbinger of fiercer outbursts from the Sun predicted for the year ahead, federal experts said.

A solar eruption late Sunday launched a cosmic tsunami of energy, in the form of charged particles, radio static and X-rays, across the 93 million miles to Earth. It was the biggest burst of speeding particles since October 2003, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.

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Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. said they were rerouting some transpolar flights to avoid the storm. Atlanta-based Delta said some flights to Detroit from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul took a more southerly route on overnight flights, though a spokesman said planes flew faster to minimize delays. Tuesday departures from the U.S. were expected to follow similar routes. United, which operates a number of transpolar flights from Chicago and Newark airports, said it had rerouted flights between Washington and Dubai.