Earth hit by strongest solar storm since 2003; GPS, power grids may be impacted: US agency
Representative image.
TheNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States (US) government said on Friday (May 10) that the Earthwas hitby the strongest solar storm since 2003.
"EXTREME (G5) conditions reached Earth at 6:54 pm EDT. Geomagnetic storming is likely to persist through the weekend as several additional Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CMEs) are in transit,"theNOAA'sSpace Weather Prediction Center said in a post on X.
The impact
The centre saidthat thestorming might impact GPS, power grids, satellite navigation, and other technologies. The centre pointed out thatcritical infrastructure operators had been notified.
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Extreme (G5) geomagnetic conditions have been observed! pic.twitter.com/qLsC8GbWus — NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 10, 2024
"The last extreme (G5) event occurred with the Halloween storms in October 2003. That event resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa."
The storm could produce northern lights as faras Alabama and Northern California in southernUS, according to the NOAA.
What is a solar storm?
The NOAA statedthat solar radiation storms occur when a large-scale magnetic eruption, often causing a coronal mass ejection and associated solar flare, accelerates charged particles in the solar atmosphere to very high velocities.
"The most important particles are protonswhichcan get accelerated to large fractions of the speed of light. At these velocities, the protons can traverse the 150 million km from the sun to Earth in just10’sofminutes or less,"it added.
The agency also pointed out thateven when the storm is over,signals between GPS satellites and ground receivers could be scrambled or lost.