A massive ball of plasma and accompanying magnetic field ejected from the sun is expected to strike Earth on Thursday morning, potentially triggering auroras as far south as Alabama, according to U.S. forecasters.
This incoming solar storm coincides with the sun approaching the peak of its 11-year cycle, a period characterized by heightened solar activity.
In May, the Earth experienced its most powerful geomagnetic storms in two decades, illuminating night skies far from the polar regions with vibrant auroras.
\"The current anticipation is that it is going to arrive tomorrow morning to midday, Eastern time, and perhaps continue on into the following day,\" said Shawn Dahl of the Space Weather Prediction Center during a briefing on Wednesday.
The coronal mass ejection (CME) is traveling through space at 4 million kilometers an hour. The agency has issued a level 4 geomagnetic storm watch (G4), one level below the highest possible G5. The final outcome could vary, potentially reaching above or below G4.
Accurate predictions are not available until about 15-30 minutes before the CME's impact, when it crosses tracking satellites approximately a million miles from Earth.
Shawn Dahl mentioned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), already handling the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and preparing for Hurricane Milton, has been notified along with companies operating the North American power grid to take necessary mitigation steps if required.
When CMEs collide with Earth's magnetosphere, they can trigger geomagnetic storms, disrupting satellites, radio signals, and GPS positioning systems. Additionally, such storms have the potential to knock out electricity grids. The \"Halloween Storms\" of October 2003, for example, caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged South Africa's power infrastructure.
In May, similar storms disrupted precision GPS systems vital for U.S. farmers in the Midwest and caused some high-voltage transformers to trip without leading to large-scale grid disruptions.
Dahl also noted that approximately 5,000 satellites required orbital adjustments due to the storm inflating the ionosphere, causing them to slow down and de-orbit.
Auroras could be visible as far south as northern California or Alabama in the United States, primarily away from city lights under dark skies. Experts advise using cameras or phones to capture the auroras, as digital imagery can often detect them even when they are not visible to the naked eye.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
