Powerful solar storm hits earth, may disrupt communication, power grids
Powerful solar storm hits earth, may disrupt communication, power grids
Srinagar, May 11 : A huge solar storm begun pummelling Earth on Friday, bringing possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it intensifies.
Reports said that the first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun — arrived in the early afternoon.
They said that severe geomagnetic storm conditions are expected to persist over the weekend, and come as the Sun approaches the peak of an 11-year cycle that brings heightened activity.
“We have notified all of our infrastructure operators that we coordinate with, such as satellite operators, communication folks… and of course, the power grid here in North America,” space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl told reporters.
The US Federal Aviation administration, however, said Friday in a social media post that “we do not anticipate any significant impacts to the national airspace system due to the potential geomagnetic storm.”
Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second.
There were at one point up to seven CMEs in transit, emanating from a sunspot cluster that is 16 times wider than our planet, but it’s not clear how they have merged together along the way. (Agencies)
