A severe G4 geomagnetic storm could emerge on Friday, triggering a watch for a storm of this magnitude from NOAA officials for the first time in nearly 20 years. The watch comes after days of solar activity that seemingly sent several explosions of plasma and magnetic fields toward Earth.G4s are the second-strongest form of geomagnetic storms and are known to potentially cause widespread voltage control problems. According to NOAA, they can also cause some protective systems to “trip out key assets from the grid,” as well as orientation issues for spacecraft. Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights, could be seen as far south as Alabama and in northern California as well.Map shows the aurora borealis (northern lights) forecast for May 10-12, 2024. / Credit: NEXT Weather/CBS Boston”If geomagnetic storms were hurricanes, ‘severe’ would be category 4,” SpaceWeather.com says.In a press release on Thursday, NOAA said the most recent series of solar events started on May 8, when a large cluster of sunspots produced “several moderate to strong solar flares.” Solar flares are bursts of radiation known to be the solar system’s largest explosive events, according to NASA. The area where the recent flares occurred is 16 times the diameter of Earth, NOAA said, and more solar activity is expected.That sunspot is so big you may be able to see it with your own eyes – with your solar eclipse glasses. The spot is known as AR3664. According to Space.com, it measures about 124,000 miles across and is one of the “largest and most active sunspots seen this solar cycle.”Still have your solar eclipse glasses? There’s currently a sunspot so large you will be able to “spot” it while wearing them 15x wider than the earth! pic.twitter.com/XpQJEd4Qk0— Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) May 9, 2024There has also been a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields that come out of the sun’s corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere. At least five CMEs appear directed toward Earth and could arrive as early as midday on Friday and persist through Sunday, the agency said.”This is an unusual event,” NOAA said.In a call with reporters on Friday, Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said that some CMEs “are catching up with other ones.” He said officials are expecting a “big shock arrival” when they hit Earth. Dahl said while officials aren’t predicting a G5 storm – the strongest of geomagnetic storms – they also can’t discount a “low-end G5 event.””We’re really buckling down here,” Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch, also said on the call.NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite c …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnA severe G4 geomagnetic storm could emerge on Friday, triggering a watch for a storm of this magnitude from NOAA officials for the first time in nearly 20 years. The watch comes after days of solar activity that seemingly sent several explosions of plasma and magnetic fields toward Earth.G4s are the second-strongest form of geomagnetic storms and are known to potentially cause widespread voltage control problems. According to NOAA, they can also cause some protective systems to “trip out key assets from the grid,” as well as orientation issues for spacecraft. Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights, could be seen as far south as Alabama and in northern California as well.Map shows the aurora borealis (northern lights) forecast for May 10-12, 2024. / Credit: NEXT Weather/CBS Boston”If geomagnetic storms were hurricanes, ‘severe’ would be category 4,” SpaceWeather.com says.In a press release on Thursday, NOAA said the most recent series of solar events started on May 8, when a large cluster of sunspots produced “several moderate to strong solar flares.” Solar flares are bursts of radiation known to be the solar system’s largest explosive events, according to NASA. The area where the recent flares occurred is 16 times the diameter of Earth, NOAA said, and more solar activity is expected.That sunspot is so big you may be able to see it with your own eyes – with your solar eclipse glasses. The spot is known as AR3664. According to Space.com, it measures about 124,000 miles across and is one of the “largest and most active sunspots seen this solar cycle.”Still have your solar eclipse glasses? There’s currently a sunspot so large you will be able to “spot” it while wearing them 15x wider than the earth! pic.twitter.com/XpQJEd4Qk0— Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) May 9, 2024There has also been a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields that come out of the sun’s corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere. At least five CMEs appear directed toward Earth and could arrive as early as midday on Friday and persist through Sunday, the agency said.”This is an unusual event,” NOAA said.In a call with reporters on Friday, Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said that some CMEs “are catching up with other ones.” He said officials are expecting a “big shock arrival” when they hit Earth. Dahl said while officials aren’t predicting a G5 storm – the strongest of geomagnetic storms – they also can’t discount a “low-end G5 event.””We’re really buckling down here,” Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch, also said on the call.NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite c …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
