Solar storm to hit Earth, may disrupt satellites, power grids

A massive solar storm of charged particles that erupted two days ago is expected to bombard the Earth’s magnetic field today which could potentially disrupt power grids, satellite navigation and plane routes.

The storm, which scientists claimed to be the largest in five years, was triggered by a pair of solar flares early Tuesday and is growing like a giant soap bubble as it races outward from the Sun.

And when it strikes early Thursday, the particles will be moving at four million miles per hour, they said.

“Space weather has gotten very interesting over the last 24 hours,” Mr Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

“This was quite the Super Tuesday - you bet,” Mr Kunches was quoted as saying by SPACE.com.

Several NASA spacecraft caught videos of the solar flare as it hurled a wave of solar plasma and charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), into space. The CME is not expected to hit Earth directly, but the cloud of charged particles could deliver a glancing blow to the planet.

Early predictions estimate that the CME will reach Earth at 5pm (India time) today, with the effects likely lasting for 24 hours, and possibly lingering into Friday, Kunches said.

The solar eruptions occurred when the Sun let loose two huge X-class solar flares that ranked among the strongest type of Sun storms. And the biggest of those flares registered as an “X5.4 class” solar storm on the space weather scale and the CME from this flare is the one that could disrupt satellite operations, Mr Kunches said.

This heightened geomagnetic activity and increase in solar radiation could impact satellites in space and power grids on the ground. Some high-precision GPS users could also be affected, he said.

“There is the potential for induced currents in power grids. Power grid operators have all been alerted. It could start to cause some unwanted induced currents,” he added.

Airplanes that fly over the polar caps, he said, may also experience communications problems issues during this time and some airliners have already taken precautionary actions.

The storm could also supercharge aurora displays - also known as the northern and southern lights - for skywatchers at high latitudes and possibly even mid-latitudes if the storm intensifies.