On Friday, officials have warned that a powerful solar storm is expected to hit Earth, potentially causing infrastructure issues. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Solar Storm Watch after detecting five “earth-directed coronal mass ejections” (CMEs) that are projected to reach our planet. This is the first G4 storm watch issued since 2005.
CMEs are described as large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona. They can travel towards Earth at speeds ranging from slower than 250 kilometers per second to as fast as near 3000 km/s. The fastest Earth-directed CMEs can reach us in as little as 15-18 hours.
The NOAA has observed several strong flares connected to a sunspot cluster that is 16 times the diameter of Earth. While the atmosphere protects us from the sun’s harmful rays, solar storms have the potential to disrupt communication systems, the electric grid, navigation, radio, and satellite operations.
Historically, the 1859 Carrington Event was the most intense solar flare observed, causing telegraphs around the world to malfunction and sparking fires from the equipment. It is important to be prepared for potential disruptions from this upcoming solar storm.
