Unexpected Solar Storm Is Heading Towards Earth, Could Hit The Planet On Monday
NOAA says that these storms could severely affect high-latitude electrical networks as well as spacecraft orbits
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has spotted a fresh geomagnetic storm on the Sun¡¯s surface that¡¯s going to leave an impact on Earth.
Reuters
Categorised as a G2 level storm, it was spotted on August 7 with another G1 level storm. Both are expected to arrive on Earth on Monday.
NOAA says that these storms could severely affect high-latitude electrical networks as well as spacecraft orbits. According to a spaceweather.com report, the storm was unpredicted and rather unexpectedly reached speeds of around 600 kilometres per second.
According to NOAA if another storm hits our planet, it could severely disrupt and damage high-latitude electrical systems. This could further cause problems with power grids and GPS devices.
What caused the solar storm?
The cause of this solar storm is still unknown, however, according to SpaceWeather, this could have been due to the early arrival of solar wind coming from an equatorial hole in the sun¡¯s atmosphere two days later.
NASA
It also speculated that this could have been from a coronal mass ejection that was probably missed by the experts.
However, humans on Earth can take a sigh of relief as we are protected by our planet¡¯s atmosphere which acts as a shield against such storms. However, the same cannot be said for our technologies with impact being experienced by telecommunications satellites and even power grids.
This is a level G2 and G1 storm. The most impactful one in the rank is a G5, so this might not be as powerful.
