An historically huge solar storm is currently hurtling toward Earth, carrying the potential to produce dazzling displays of northern lights across the United States this weekend while simultaneously posing risks of disruptions to power grids and communication systems.
In a slightly alarming move, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a geomagnetic storm watch – the first such alert in nearly two decades. This watch is expected to escalate to a warning by Friday night, coinciding with the anticipated arrival of the effects from this solar outburst.
NOAA has already cautioned operators of power plants and spacecraft in orbit to take the necessary precautions to protect their equipment from the solar event.
“As far as the worst-case scenario anticipated here on Earth, that’s difficult to predict, and I wouldn’t want to speculate on that,” remarked NOAA space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl. “However, a severe-level event is quite extraordinary; it’s an incredibly rare occurrence.”
According to NOAA, the sun produced a series of intense solar flares beginning on Wednesday, resulting in five eruptions of plasma capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth. Each of these eruptions, known as coronal mass ejections, can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields originating from the sun’s outer atmosphere.
These flares appear to be associated with a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, NOAA reported. In 2003, an extreme geomagnetic storm caused power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
The current storm could potentially generate northern lights visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California within the United States, according to NOAA.
The most intense solar storm on record, which occurred in 1859, triggered auroras as far south as Central America and possibly even Hawaii.
“That was an extreme-level event,” Dahl stated. “We are not anticipating an event of that magnitude, but it could come close.”