NEW DELHI: A potent solar storm is on its way towards Earth, which would potentially bring forth northern lights across the United States while also posing a threat to communication systems.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch, marking the first such warning in almost two decades. This watch will be in effect starting Friday and extending throughout the weekend.
According to NOAA, the sun has been emitting intense solar flares since Wednesday, resulting in five significant outbursts of plasma.These eruptions, known as coronal mass ejections, have the capacity to disrupt satellites orbiting Earth and interfere with power grids. Each of these eruptions may contain billions of tons of solar plasma.
NOAA emphasizes the unusual nature of this event, noting that the flares appear to be linked to a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth. The agency recalls the impact of an extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003, which caused power outages in Sweden and inflicted damage on power transformers in South Africa.
Forecasters anticipate that the impending storm could lead to the appearance of northern lights as far south as Alabama and Northern California in the US, as per NOAA.
(With agency inputs)