The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday that a “severe” geomagnetic storm could hit Earth on Friday night.
According to NOAA, the agency’s forecasters observed that such storms could affect power grids, communications, navigation, radio and satellite operations. Said. This approaching storm Number 2 The highest form of magnetic storm. The category above “serious” is “extreme.”
NOAA notified the operators of these vulnerable systems “so that they can take protective measures.” NOAA also notes that such severe storms can cause aurora borealis, which “may be visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California,” the press release states. (Related: Exclusive: ‘Blatant violations’: Watchdog disputes key data used by Biden administration to push far-reaching climate change policies)
According to NOAA, geomagnetic storms occur when solar flares or discharges of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona are directed toward Earth.
“[Solar flares] That’s when the sun gets bright and you see radiation, and it’s a kind of muzzle flash,” says Peter Becker, a professor at George Mason University. Said fox weather. “And the cannon fire is a coronal mass ejection (CME), which means you see the flash, but then ejections of coronal mass can occur in random directions in space, but when do they actually come to Earth? And you have about 18 hours, maybe 24 hours, of warning before those particles actually reach the Earth and start disrupting the Earth’s magnetic field.”
This is the first time a severe geomagnetic storm is predicted to hit Earth since 2005, NOAA tweeted along with a photo of the sun.
Massive sunspot clouds and powerful solar flares prompted SWPC to issue its first G4 watch since 2005… pic.twitter.com/oi55cTPXhP
— NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 9, 2024
NOAA was founded in 1970 under President Richard Nixon as an amalgamation of much older government agencies dating back to 1807.
