CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unusually strong solar storm heading toward Earth could produce northern lights across the United States this weekend and potentially disrupt power and communications.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch – the first in nearly 20 years. This was expected to become a warning Friday evening, as the effects of the solar blast were expected to reach Earth.
NOAA has already alerted operators of power plants and orbiting spacecraft to take precautions.
“As far as the worst situation is expected here on Earth, it’s hard to say and I wouldn’t want to speculate on that,” said Shawn Dahl, NOAA space meteorologist. “However, the serious level is quite extraordinary, it’s a very rare event that happens.”
AP correspondent Shelley Adler reports that a solar storm could have an effect on the United States.
NOAA said the Sun produced strong solar flares starting Wednesday, resulting in five plasma explosions capable of disrupting orbiting satellites and power grids here on Earth. Each flare – known as a coronal mass ejection – can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
The flares appear to be associated with a sunspot whose diameter is 16 times that of Earth, according to NOAA. In 2003, an extreme geomagnetic storm knocked out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
The latest storm could produce northern lights as far south as Alabama and Northern California, according to NOAA.
The most intense solar storm in recorded history, in 1859, brought auroras to Central America and perhaps even Hawaii. “It’s an extreme level event,” Dahl said. “We don’t anticipate that,” but it could be close.
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