Earth is expected to be hit by a powerful three-day solar storm today that could cause “fluctuations in the power grid,” experts warn.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) noted that the geomagnetic storm, which is a major disruption of Earth’s magnetosphere, could disrupt the orbits of satellites, cause radio blackouts and create incredible northern lights views this far south as New York could push.
The coming storm is due to an active sunspot that has produced at least 18 outbursts this week.
This is the same area that spewed out a powerful stream of plasmacalled coronal mass ejections (CME) earlier this month, disrupting communications worldwide.
The US government’s space weather experts are warning that a powerful three-day solar storm will hit Earth today – following a solar flare that caused coronal mass ejections (CME) towards Earth – potentially causing ‘electricity grid fluctuations’.
The sunspot completed a full rotation around the sun and turned back toward Earth for what appears to be another few active days
The event is just one harbinger of the powerful solar weather to come when the sun reaches its “solar maximum,” astrophysicists told DailyMail.com, the most energetic point of its recurring, 11-year solar cycle, next summer in July 2025.
Category G2 or “moderate” solar storms are expected for Friday and Saturday, following today’s milder events, according to NOAA, which runs the U.S. organization. Center for Space Weather Forecasting.
The ‘impact area’ will likely extend from the Earth’s poles to within 55 degrees of ‘geomagnetic latitude’ – a region that includes northern parts of Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota , Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont.
While that puts these regions of the continental US at some risk for voltage problems with local power systems and disruptions to high frequency radio waves, there will also be benefits.
The beautiful sky phenomenon known as aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights, will also be visible in these areas, depending on local cloud conditions.
“Aurora can be seen from New York to Wisconsin to Washington state,” according to NOAA’s latest space weather advisory.
The upcoming solar storm on Friday and Saturday, caused by an X1.4 solar flare CME (photo, left of center above) emitted from Sunspot AR3697 yesterday. The outburst’s CME has already caused “strong radio blackouts” over the mid-Atlantic, according to EarthSky
Sunspot AR3664, now renamed AR3697, has reached a size that now rivals the sunspot responsible for the infamous 1895 Carrington event – which set telegraph wires ablaze and shut down international communications
According to meteorologist Bob Henson, even if they can’t see this charged plasma light show in Earth’s upper magnetosphere, skygazers living in those areas might want to snap a few photos, especially if they have a newer model of iPhone.
“Some cameras (including newer iPhones) are sensitive enough to take stunning aurora images, even when the aurora is almost or completely invisible to the naked eye,” says Henson. Posted to social site X earlier this month.
Although this weekend’s solar storm is expected to be less intense than ‘extreme (G5) geomagnetic conditions‘ of the powerful CMEs that hit Earth from May 10 to 13, more can be expected as the Sun approaches the most turbulent phase of its cycle.
“We could easily have much bigger storms in the next year or two,” Dr. Jonathan McDowell of the Smithsonian and Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics told DailyMail.com earlier this month.
Sunspot AR3664, now renamed AR3697, is the disturbance on the Sun’s surface that was responsible for the largest G5 solar storms of May this year and is larger than the sunspot that caused the infamous Carrington event of 1859.
The Carrington storm set telegraph wires on fire, disrupted communications worldwide and even disrupted ships’ compasses. A history that could repeat itself and wreak havoc on modern technology if Earth experiences direct hits from these larger solar storms.
The sunspot completed a full rotation around the sun and turned back toward Earth for what appears to be another few active days.
“It’s certainly a scary time for satellite operators,” Dr. McDowell said.
In recent years it has also been proven that large geomagnetic storms can destroy satellites by causing them to collide with other objects in space.
One 2022 geomagnetic storm, the last major storm prior to May, destroyed up to 40 Starlink satellites worth more than $50 million, according to the company.
The upcoming solar storm on Friday and Saturday, caused by a EarthSky.