The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather agency warns that a geomagnetic storm could hit Earth in the coming days. The solar storm is said to result from coronal mass ejections (CMEs), a solar flare that ejects plasma.
According to Spaceweather.com, this is a geomagnetic storm of category G1, i.e. a mild solar storm. Among other things, weak fluctuations in the power grid and satellites can be disturbed. The northern lights can often be seen as well.
CME hurled in our direction in December
Specifically, a slow-moving CME is expected to hit the Earth’s magnetic field, hurled in our direction by a solar flare of class M3.7 in December.
Usually, the magnetic field protects our Earth from cosmic rays and charged particles released by the solar wind. However, some charged particles can still leak through and cause a magnetic disturbance.
- source: futurezone.at/picture: Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
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