A rare severe geomagnetic storm watch is issued for the first time in nearly 20 years amid "unusual" solar event.
CBS News quotes the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): "Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth's surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations."
Space weather forecasters have issued a #geomagnetic#storm watch through Monday
An ouburst of #plasma from a solar flare could interfere with radio transmissions on Earth -- And could make for great #aurora viewing.
“For the general public, if you have clear skies at night and you are at higher latitudes, this would be a great opportunity to see the skies light up,” Lash said.
Satellite operators might have trouble tracking their spacecraft
Power grids could also see some “induced current” in their lines, though nothing they can’t handle, he said.
Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic field flips -- its north and south poles switch positions.
Solar activity changes during that cycle, and it’s now near its most active, called the solar maximum.
During such times, geomagnetic storms of the type that arrived Sunday can hit Earth a few times a year
In December, the biggest solar flare in years disrupted radio communications.
"Here it will be shown that the mass of the conductive particles left behind from worldwide distribution of re-entry satellites is already billions of times greater than the mass of the Van Allen Belts."
A notable #geomagnetic storm is expected to result from the arrival of a coronal mass ejection that erupted from the surface of the sun ☀️ on 📆 Saturday, Sept. 16 and was aimed in the direction of #Earth.
The level of #solar activity beginning in the 📆 1940s is exceptional – the last period of similar magnitude occurred around 9,000 years ago. The #Sun ☀️ was at a similarly high level of magnetic activity for only ~10% of the past 11,400 years. Almost all earlier high-activity periods were shorter than the present episode. #Fossil records suggest that the #SolarCycle has been stable for at least the last 700 million years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle#Cycle_history
The weekend could see some fantastic #aurora across the planet if two #CMEs hit Earth back to back. The sun's coronal mass ejections that blasted off the #solar surface should arrive on Friday, possibly producing some big #geomagnetic storms.