Raging Solar Storm Could Bring Northern Lights and Communications Snafus
A huge burst of energy produced by a powerful solar storm could strike the Earth as early as Friday, experts say, potentially bringing the Northern Lights to skies over several states and disrupting communications.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a “very rare” Severe G4 Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Friday through the weekend. It’s the first time the NOAA has issued such a watch in almost 20 years.
The sun began producing strong solar flares—intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation—on Wednesday, according to the NOAA, associated with a sunspot cluster which is 16 times the diameter of the Earth. The radiation travels to our planet at the speed of light and can cause shortwave radio blackouts, according to Space.com, while coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields—can take days to reach us.